Nawalparasi, February 26, 2008

A protester was killed on the 14th day of bandh called by the the United Madhesi Democratic Front in a clash between police and protesters here today.

Elsewhere, the protesters indulged in vandalism and arson in several districts. As the situation worsened, local authorities clamped curfew in Bara, Parsa, Nawalparasi, Sunsari and Saptari.

A person was killed when the protesters and police clashed in Nawalparasi’s Maheshpur this afternoon. Twenty-two-year-old Kalbari Paswan of Ramgram-9 died on the spot in police firing when the protesters tried to storm the Maheshpur based border police post. He was hit in the chest.

UMDF cadres also torched police posts at Maheshpur, Gerami and Gobrahiya. The same mob looted and torched former state minister Devendra Raj Kandel’s house at Maheshpur, said Nawalparasi Superintendent of Police Sushil Singh Bhandari. Two vehicles parked in his house were also torched. Seven persons were injured in Sunsari district headquarters Inaruwa and Jhumka today.

In Saptari, thousands joined the funeral procession of Gulten Das, who was killed in police firing yesterday, defying curfew. Fifteen persons were injured when police resorted to lathi charge. Two of them are in critical condition and are undergoing treatment at Sagarmatha zonal hospital.

Das’s body was taken to his native village Biraul in Saptari district’s Dighawa VDC and cremated there today.

Kidnap bid foiled, culprit thrashed

Kathmandu, February 26, 2008

Locals today thrashed Sudarshan Humagain, 37, of Kavre, at Balkumari, Koteshwor thinking that he was trying to kidnap a three-year-old girl after wrapping her in a shawl.

Locals said Hungma Rani Subba was playing on roadside when a strange man caught her and wrapped her in shawl. “He took the child around 200 metres away and tried to put her in a sack. He poured water on her head and was chanting mantras to mesmerise the child so that she won’t cry,” a local claimed.

Aware of frequent cases of child abduction in the capital, locals immediately suspected that the man was trying to abduct her. People of the area pounced on him and started thrashing him. “Why should any stranger pick and wrap a girl if not trying to kidnap her,” the locals argued. People gathered immediately and everyone had a field day thrashing him. “This man should be beaten to death,” someone said from the crowd.

Others suggested it would be wise to hand him over to police. By the time he was taken to Metropolitan Police Sector, Koteshwor, he was bleeding profusely.

The police said he sustained bruises on head, back and legs. “He is not in critical condition,” ASI Purna Karki said. However, the police immediately dismissed the locals’ suspicion that the Humagain had tried to abduct the child.