RUPANDEHI: Chairman of the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) Kedarnath Upadhyaya today said lawlessness grew in the country after political parties joined hands with criminal groups.

Inaugurating a sub-regional office of the NHRC in Butwal, Upadhyaya said: “A bad culture of taking the law in their hands by forming armed outfits and joining hands with criminal groups by almost all political parties has begun in the country.” “Political parties’ affiliation with criminal gangs has been a matter of serious concern,” he added.

Upadhyaya said political parties in the government and in opposition had been involved in such activities. He added that people had not experienced peace and security in the country even after three years of signing of the Comprehensive Peace Accord by the government and the erstwhile CPN-Maoist.

“This is why some 150 small and big criminal groups have come to fore in the country,” he said. “In some cases, even security personnel have been involved in abduction, taking ransom, donation terror, murder and violence and seizing property.”

Upadhyaya gave an example of a withdrawn case lodged against the accused of Kapilbastu murder. He said the withdrawal of the case, with a political motive, has encouraged criminal activities in the country.

“The major violators of human rights have been backed by political parties while they used to be supported by the police and the army during the armed struggle,” he said. “The criminals have managed to get respectable positions in parties and their sister organisations.”

He also accused the government of not being sensitive about the pains and sufferings of 17,000 to 25,000 families, whose members lost their lives during the insurgency and sufferings of thousands of people displaced and disappeared.

He said messages of peace emanating from Lumbini, the birth place of Gautam Buddha, could be heard all over the world but not in Nepal.

It is learnt that the newly-established

NHRC branch will investigate cases of human rights violations and its conservation in six districts of Lumbini zone and Chitwan.