Nepali Times
From The Nepali Press
Irresponsible



On Friday evening at Janajyoti Campus in Mahedranagar, the security forces opened fire at innocent students, terrorising villagers and causing students to rise in revolt. According to the details of the incident, members of ANNFSU were discussing preparations for their inaugural committee and district level inspection program when the security forces suddenly burst into the room. The students began to run in fear when they saw armed security personnel and were shot at on suspicion of being Maoists.

Local residents who witnessed the incident had told the security forces that the students were not Maoists. The security forces did not listen to them and went ahead, causing serious injury to some of the students. ANNFSU's Central Committee Member Nar Bahadur Dhami, District-level Committee's Assistant Secretary Mahesh Pant and Janajyoti Campus' student Kiran Chhetri were shot in the leg. This incident casts a shadow on the credibility of the security force that is supposed to look after the security of the nation. They claim that they were forced to open fire because they had only received information about a Maoist meeting and the students had not informed them about theirs. Their excuse that they began to shoot at the students on suspicion of being Maoists because they began to run is irrational. Can you shoot at a group of people just because you think they are Maoists? This is a serious question. First, the informer gave wrong information to the security forces. Second, responsible security personnel opened fire without verifying facts. Besides these, there were a number of grave mistakes made. To shoot at a non-violent crowd of unarmed innocent students is against human rights and the Geneva Convention. Even if they were Maoists, according to the law of the kingdom, they could have been arrested or treated as prisoners but they were students discussing their association's programs. A few of them were meeting for a simple discussion at the campus they attended and they thought it was safe. Student associations have protested this act of violence creating difficulties in the educational calendar again. For students to live in terror of the state is to confuse hundreds of young people. It is important that the guilty party be brought to justice. The security force must also understand that they cannot act on suspicion alone, to do so is to violate human rights and the law.


LATEST ISSUE
638
(11 JAN 2013 - 17 JAN 2013)


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