Rautahat, August 13

Police fired 12 rounds of bullets and tear gas during a clash with buffalo traders in Rautahat’s Rajpur Municipality today.

According to sources, the clash occurred when police tried to detain buffalo smugglers, who, using a secret route, had managed to bring 58 buffaloes to Kudiya bazaar of Rajpur Municipality to supply them to major markets such as Kathmandu and Pokhara.

Kudiya bazaar is about 5km north from the Nepal-India border.

As soon as police learnt about the smuggled buffaloes, a team was deployed from the District Police Office to confiscate the cattle and detain the smugglers.

But as traders had mustered a large crowd of locals in their support before police reached the site, they started attacking the police team with stones.

Police had fired eight rounds of tear gas and four bullet shots in the air to take the situation under control.

After firing, police had retreated to avoid further escalation of violence.

“As confiscating the buffaloes from the crowd could have led to deaths, police conducted a defensive action and retreated in order to avoid any fatalities,” said SP Rabiraj Khadka of Rautahat.

“As the border is completely sealed, we are investigating how and from which route the buffaloes were smuggled. Once the investigation is over, action will be taken against the incharge of the police unit concerned,” he said.

A version of this article appears in e-paper on August 14, 2020, of The Himalayan Times.