GAIGHAT: Locals demonstrated in Gaighat today, protesting the murder of 13-year-old Bijay Magar.

A resident of Ratamate in Triyuga municipality, Bijay was brutally murdered on Thursday.

A Grade VII student at Little Flowers English Boarding School, Bijay was attacked with an axe and a knife in the head and neck while he was alone at home.

The locals have accused an Armed Police Force cop Trilochan Puri, a resident of Nepalgunj deputed at the APF camp in Siraha Thadi, of killing the child. They demanded action against Puri, compensation for the victim's family and martyrdom status to the murdered. The 18-member struggle committee coordinated by Keshav Magar, one of Bijay's teachers, has called an indefinite Gaighat bandh beginning tomorrow.

Meanwhile, the police said they were hunting the guilty. DSP Pashupati Dottel said Puri was undergoing treatment at the Dharan-based BP Koirala Institute of Health Sciences, promising to interrogate him once he was discharged. Puri had gone to meet his relatives on the night of Bijay's murder. The policeman was allegedly thrashed by an unidentified gang, who also slashed his tongue.