FORMER SPEAKER NEMWANG BHLASTS ATTEMPT TO INSTALL REGMI GOVT. EVEN BEFORE SUPREME COURT BEGINS HEARINGS ON LEGALITY Kathmandu, 13 March: Former Speaker and now Senior Advocate Subash Nemwang Wednesday in a radio interview came down heavily on political players attempting to install an election government headed by Chief Justice Khil Ran Regmi. Attempts bate being made even as a special bench of the supreme court begins hearing tomorrow [Thursday] on two writs challenging what has been called an ‘unconstitutional’ attempt of Maoists with support of other parties in and out of government to install a Regmi-led government even as he continues as head of the judiciary. Special bench of the supreme court begins haring Thursday. “The county is moving into darkness. I am surprised attempts are going on [to install Regmi] even amid protests. The legality of the attempt is being discussed. “Protests are mounting. What will happen after he [Regmi becomes prime minister,” Nemwang asked. The former speaker attacked to opposition UML said Regmi will be challenged in courts from district to national level. “What is the compulsion? The procedure to appoint an incumbent chief justice PMi not even mentioned in the constitution,” Nemwang reminded and asked if parties couldn’t hold election what is the guarantee Regmi will succeed. Like former Chief Justice Anup Raj Sharma, the senior advocate called the the day Regmi hinted he would take up government responsibilities as ‘a black day’ for the judiciary. nnnn . “.. SECURITY REINFORCED TO CURB ANTI-CHINA ACTIVITIES Kathmandu, 13 March: Police have beefed up security to thwart any anti-China activities in the Capital as this month commemorates the 54th anniversary of Tibet’s failed uprising against China on March 10, 1959 and Dalai Lama’s exile to India, The Himalayan Times reports. Officials said special security measures are also meant for maintaining law and order ahead of Xi Jinping’s succession to Hu Jintao as President of People’s Republic of China as the law enforcement agency had been tipped that Tibetan refugees were trying to stage protests to ‘condemn Chinese aggression against the Tibetan territory’. Police have detained more than a dozen Tibetan exiles for their alleged suspicious activities, besides stepping up security in and around the Chinese Embassy, Consular Section, Swoyambhu, Boudha and Tibetan refugee centres to prevent potential anti-China demonstrations on the streets. Officials have already warned Tibetans against stepping out of their respective places with an intent to stage anti-China protest saying that it would pose a threat to the national policy. The Bhatbhateni-Baluwatar road section leading to the Chinese Embassy, Nagpokhari-Hattisar road section and Jaya Nepal-Krishna Pauroti Chowk have been declared no-vehicle zones for the time being. Traffic police have made diversions for the vehicles. Officials said they were also concerned over the alleged self-immolation bids of some Tibetans in the wake of the February 13 incident when Drupchen Tsering, 22, set himself on fire on the premises of the Boudhanath Stupa ‘to protest the Chinese rule in Tibet’. The Tibetan monk had succumbed to third-degree burn injuries the following day. Nepal is home to some 22,000 Tibetan exiles, who started fleeing Tibet in 1959 after the Dalai Lama went into exile. Nnnn GANG POSING AS INTERPOL OFFICIALS HELD Kathmandu, 13 March: Metropolitan Police Crime Division today rounded up three persons for their involvement in robbing people of cash and valuables posing themselves as Interpol officials in the Capital, The Himalayan Times reports. The detainees are Sajan Timilsina, 27, of Jorpati, Bhaiking Subba, 34, of Baneshwor and Sanjog Subba Limbu, 26, of Mahankal, Kathmandu. MPCD had launched a search operation followed by an input that a new criminal racket was emerging under the cloak of Interpol officials to blackmail unsuspecting people into surrendering their belongings. DSP Surendra Mainali, chief of Anti-theft Section at MPCD, said the racketeers’ modus operandi was handcuffing their targets alleging them of crime suspects and taking them to secret places for robbery. On June 9, 2012, the gang took Milan Gurung, 28, of Sunsari under control by putting handcuffs on him and forced him into going to Sinamangal on a taxi before robbing him of Rs 10,000 and fleeing, leaving the victim baffled. “They first demanded Rs 150,000 from Gurung saying that he was in possession of huge amount of fake currency and that legal action would be taken if he refused to pay the money. Subsequently, the gang robbed him and fled,” DSP Mainali informed. The gang adopted the same modus operandi to rob Jagannath, who goes by his single name, of cash and belongings in Sinamangal in October last year. MPCD said sleuths rounded up the racketeers from Baneshwor as they were hatching a plot to commit crimes. Police have also confiscated handcuffs from their possession. Possessing handcuffs by any person other than the security forces are punishable by law. Earlier, MPCD had arrested a three-member gang for robbing people posing as HIV-positives and threatening them to pierce ‘the syringe infected with the virus’ into their body if they refused to surrender their belongings’ in February. nnnn