Himalayan News Service

Kathmandu, April 25:

Fear and terror is reigning the village of Bargadwa of Somni VDC in Nawalparasi district after the Maoist atrocity there, a member of the monitoring team of the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) said after returning from a field visit. A majority of the villagers have already fled to neighbouring areas fearing further attacks from the Maoists, he said. The two-member NHRC team comprising Murari Kharel and Madhav Gautam returned to Kathmandu yesterday following an on the spot investigation in the district. “The few people who are in the village are extremely terrified following the recent Maoist attack on civilians in Nawalparasi,” Gautam told The Himalayan Times. Ten civilians were killed, eleven houses were torched while four other houses were pulled down in the incident. The team also visited Guthiparsauni, Nepal-India border and met the Indian police to check if the displaced villagers had migrated to India. “We did not find any Nepalis from the village crossing the border,” said Gautam. The team also visited the victims of the Maoist attack in hospitals in the district and interacted with the security forces and representatives of local NGOs. “We initiated a programme of collecting relief funds for the victims in the district,” Gautam said. The team is preparing a report on the incident following its five-day visit to Nawalparasi.