Siraha,February 22:

More than a dozen squatters were injured when forest guards and police personnel charged batons at a group of squatters who were trying to padlock the District Forest Office, Siraha, demanding resettlement of the squatters displaced from Targena in Govindapur-5.

The injured squatters are undergoing treatment at a hospital in Lahan. According to INSEC’s Siraha representative Devraj Pokharel, the police personnel and forest guards jointly charged batons at the demonstrating squatters.

The forest guards also charged batons at Dilip Singh, a correspondent of Nepal FM and joint-secretary of the district chapter of Federation of Nepali Journalists, while he was gathering news of the squatters’ protest.

Issuing a joint statement, the district chapters of FNJ, Press Union and Press Chautari have condemned the attack on a working journalist.