Dhankuta, February 20

Province 1 government has provided relief amount to 16 martyrs’ families at a programme organised in Panchakanya of Sahidbhumi Rural Municipality, Dhankuta, yesterday.

The martyrs’ families got financial assistance after 40 years.

Chief Minister Sher Dhan Rai handed over Rs 500,000 to each of the families yesterday. The then Panchayat government had killed 16 people, including a new mother, in October 1980 after they were accused of supporting the communist party. Of them, some were killed after being pushed off the cliff, some in police firing and others were drowned in a river. Late Surya Bahadur Thapa, who was from Dhankuta, was the prime minister of the country when the killings took place.

The government had decided to offer Rs 1 million to each of the families of the people who were killed in Chintang incident after they were announced martyrs in December 2017.

Earlier, the Girija Prasad Koirala-led government had also offered Rs 100,000 to each of the families in 1994.

Martyrs’ Conservation Committee Chair Balram Rai said Rs 25,000 was offered to each of the martyr’s families when Jhalanath Khanal was the prime minister of the country.

Rai said Rs 100,000 was provided to each of the families when Madhav Kumar Nepal was the prime minister of the country.