PM KHANAL CONTINUES TO LOBBY SUPPORT

PM KHANAL CONTINUES TO LOBBY FOR SUPPORT

Kathmandu, 18 May: Prime Minister Jhalanath Khanal will continue Wednesday to lobby for support on behalf of the government for an official proposal to extend the tenure of the constituent assembly (CA) for one year after 28 May when its current ends without promulgating a constitution.
Khanal is holding discussions with Chairman of Rashtriya Janashakti Party (RJP) Chairman Surya Bahadur Thapa before flying for Dolakha even as RJP is opposed to another extension of the CA tenure.
Three ruling parties, Khanal’s UML, Maoists and MJFN, Wednesday decided to ask other parties to help government to approve its proposal registered in the legislature to extend the CA tenure for one year with a two-third majority.
The ruling parties are in a majority but don’t yet have the required two-third majority
Ruling and opposition parties have intensified their campaigns to positions for and against the government proposal in parliament.
Government is likely to table a bill proposing an extension in parliament Sunday.
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PRACHANDA SUB-COMMITTEE MEETS

Kathmandu, 18 May: A sub-committee headed by Maoist Chairman Prachanda to sort out 30 contentious articles to be included constitution met Wednesday after a main constitution drafting committee headed by Nilambar Acharya extended its tenure until 27 May one day before the deadline to promulgate a basic law
The main parties in the empowered committee have already concluded a 28 May deadline to complete a constitution won’t be met for the second time in three years.
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FRENZIED PLA FIGHTERS RUN AMOK

Kathmandu, 18 May: Maoist fighters billeted in the First Division Cantonment in Chulachuli of Ilam on Monday night went berserk and beat up villagers of Kamaljhoda of Chulachuli to within an inch of their life, Rohit Kumar Luitel writes in The Himalayan Times from Damak.

According to locals, a group of more than 50 Maoist fighters, who had come out of

the cantonment, also vandalised six houses. After the rampage, the combatants took injured Chhabi Subba, Man Bahadur Phago, Birat Limbu, Dipendra Tumba and Bishal Sunuwar, forcefully to cantonment, said locals.

Another injured Dik Bahadur Subba, who has received a serious injury on his head, has been rushed to Neuro Hospital in Biratnagar.

Stricken villagers wailed throughout the night as combatants wielded power and pounced on the youth in front of their families.

According to Chhabi’s mother Lilamaya, the combatants barged into her house and started thrashing both of her sons all of a sudden. “They hauled my sons out in the yard and brandished guns when me and my sister-in-law asked them to stop,” said Lilamaya. “They would sprinkle water on my sons when they fell unconscious and thrash them again.”

Lilamaya added that after assaulting her sons brutally, the combatants had taken Chhabi, who had passed out by then, towards the south. “I sent Dik Bahadur, who was unable to speak, to hospital for treatment.” Another local Kamala Rai said the combatants went on the rampage and vandalised houses as they uttered obnoxious words. “We managed to hide under a cot with our children,” said Kamala.

Indra Kumari Sunuwar, who had come to the cantonment to visit her injured son Bishal, said her son was beaten black and blue.

Suman Thamsuhang, a fifth grader who was also injured during the assault, said the combatants had hit him with a gun and rods.

A day after the Maoist fighters went berserk, organising a press meet in the division headquarters today, cantonment’s military secretary Ram Bahadur Thapa said a rescue team that was sent to the village after learning about the incident had brought the injured to the cantonment for treatment. Thapa admitted that some fighters were out of the cantonment on Monday night ‘for a few hours’ but tried to downplay the incident saying ‘they were not carrying guns, khukuris and spears as claimed by the villagers’.

The villagers have surmised that the violent attack by combatants on local youth was aimed at settling a score with the latter. According to the villagers, the local youth on May 14 had assaulted some combatants during a PLA fighter Chandra Bahadur Rai’s marriage with a local girl. PLA combatants Nawaraj Khatri and Prakash Rai were injured in the incident. A day after, the combatants had lodged a complaint against Dhurba Lawoti, Buddha Phago, Jeevan Tumbapo, Nayan Phago and Dik Bahadur Subba.

Former military secretary Naresh told reporters that the youth had assaulted some combatants. “The youth didn’t turn up at Damak police for settling the dispute on Monday,” he said. All the injured returned home from cantonments today afternoon.

Meanwhile, issuing a press statement, Ilam-Kathmandu liaison committee of the Nepali Congress today demanded that the government take strict action against the combatants and provide compensation to the victims.
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MAOISTS THRASH NEIGHBOURS TO CANTONMENT
Kathmandu, 18 May: I was invited at Dipendra Tumba's house on Monday night. A brief chitchat followed the dinner and then we went to the bed at around 10pm, Bishal Sunuwar told Rohit Kumar Luitel of The Himalayan Times .

But suddenly we heard some sound, which later approached our doors. Dipendra responded to the knock, which was mixed with shouts like 'bring them out, bring them out'. No sooner had Dipendra opened the door than a group of youth pounced on us and started beating us with rods and butts of guns.

They dragged me out of the room and thrashed me. They hit me on my head; I was soon soaked with the blood. There were about 50-60 of them. I almost lost consciousness but they would not stop beating me. I started crying, but it seems, it provoked them more. I could see that some of them were assaulting Dipendra. From 11pm to 1am their brutality continued and they dragged us to the cantonment and kept on assaulting us.

As they reached the gate of the camp, one of them punched me hard which followed a question: "Weren't you the one present in the marriage?" I said I wasn't but, I now realise, their question didn't demand the answer. When we were dumped in a room, I regained my sight and I spotted some other local youth from my village there. Their condition was no better; with faces swollen and bruises all over. A Maoist fighter came and gave us a tablet saying it was a hospital. Some other combatants applied a bandage to my head.

I was so scared that I could not sleep the whole night. They gave us food at 11am the next day (on Tuesday) but I had no appetite. I was worried that they would confine us into that room again. A little later, I saw my mother. She had brought some clothes for me. I changed. At around 3pm, they left us at the gate of the camp. After reaching my village, I came to know that they had released us from the eastern gate of the camp while they had called our relatives, villagers, human rights activists and mediapersons at the western gate.

I was later sent to a hospital. I had done nothing against them. I am innocent but they beat me up mercilessly. This is injustice. My wounds will heal, but what about the pain they have inflicted on me?

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TIA IMMIGRATION HELPED TRAFFIC BANGLADESHIS
Kathmandu, 18 May Top immigration officials implicated in the red passport scam are also found to have been providing safe passage to hundreds of Bangladeshis trafficked to other countries, particularly in the Gulf, under fake Nepali identities, investigations have shown, Sundar Khanal Writes in Repubica.

Bhuminanda Bhandari, the only one under detention among five Tribhuvan International Airport (TIA) immigration officers implicated in the red passport scam, recorded a statement with police that almost the entire TIA immigration set-up had been facilitating easy access inside the terminal for Bangladeshi workers, as per tie-ups with trafficking rackets.
“It was like an open secret that Bangladeshis would not have passed through TIA unless they were shepherded by Nepali officials. Bhuminanda´s statement has only substantiated it. Investigations are now required into this new aspect also,” said investigative officials.

The appalling involvement of top immigration officials in trafficking Nepalis and foreign nationals under fake identities has been established following the disappearance of Khada Nanada Dhakal, chief of TIA Immigration Office, and three other officials, after they were implicated in the red passport scam.

Bhandari had directly fingered Joint-Secretary Dhakal, who is known in contemporary Nepali Literature by the pen name Prateek Dhakal, as the key person facilitating the safe passage of two persons in possession of the tampered passports of lawmakers Gayatri Sah and BP Yadav. Nepal police have issued arrest warrants against all four absconding immigration officials.

“They must have earned at least Rs 10 million each in a period of six months solely through their conniving at trafficking rackets,” said officials of the Central Investigation Bureau (CIB), the special bureau of Nepal police that succeeded in unravelling the intriguing red passport scam and arresting the two lawmakers last month.

Thousands of Bangladeshis with fake Nepali identities are believed to have been trafficked to other countries in 2010 alone via TIA. As a supporting fact, investigative officials point to a massive increase in the number of Bangladeshi nationals entering Nepal by air over the last few years. A total of 20,223 Bangladeshi nationals entered Nepal by air in 2010 alone, an increase of 60 percent compared to 2009. The astounding figure follows a huge increase of 48 percent in 2008 and a steady increase of 7 percent in 2009, in comparison to the respective preceding years.

The trend is considered quite unprecedented and unnatural, taking into account that there has not been any spectacular tourism promotion or business activity between the two countries to trigger such huge movement of people.

Racketeers have immersed themselves in trafficking Bangladeshi nationals through Nepal for the last few years after Bangladesh was restricted by Gulf countries to limited quotas for the supply of migrant workers.

Metropolitan Police Range Kathmandu (MPRK) arrested 17 Bangladeshi nationals, both agents and migrant workers, during raids in 2010 while they were allegedly trying to fly overseas with fake Nepali passports. Likewise, Kuwaiti authorities arrested 34 Indian and Bangladeshi nationals in December, 2010 for possessing fake Nepali passports.

“Almost all Bangladeshi nationals arrested in the capital would say that they were assured of help from TIA immigration officials. But we had failed to crack down on the TIA officials owing to lack of concerted investigations,” said investigative officials.
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