Biratnagar, December 28:

Six families have been displaced from Sunsari’s Inaruwa following an intimidation by armed Tarai outfits.

Chandra Bahadur Bhandari, Laxmi Narayan Sharma, Kaji Basnet and Krishna Kumar Shrestha of Inaruwa have fled to safety after the outfits tried to extort money from them by issuing death threats.

The victims had to flee leaving their property behind due to lack of prospective buyers owing to the threat, said a victim, Kaji Basnet. Another displaced person, Rajendra Bhandari left the country one-and-a-half years ago. Bhandari’s house was torched in February, 2006.

The victims said residents of hill origin faced intimidation, as well as social boycott. The armed groups have been specifically targeting royalists and NC activists for ransom.