Well-known human rights activist and lawyer Gopal Siwakoti "Chintan", attacked by unknown assailants on the night of 17 January, says the police has made no attempt to nab assailants even a week after the incident. "This silence is alarming," says Chintan, now recovering after emergency treatment. "They've not even come to get a first-hand account from me, even though I filed a formal complaint with the Anamnagar police office on 18 January."

The National Human Rights Commission too is appalled by the neglect. "We're concerned about the inaction," says Kapil Shrestha, member of the NHRC. "We'll follow this incident to its logical conclusion."

In what appears to be a well-planned attack, a woman called Chintan at home on the day he was attacked asking him to step out on the street to collect a packet she was delivering for his son. He did accordingly and was on his way back after waiting 15 minutes for the caller to show up when he was attacked. He escaped with a broken knee and nose and a wound on the head. Two passers-by, who are reported to have seen three people fleeing the scene of crime, helped him get home after the attack.

Doctors at Kathmandu Model Hospital reported the incident to the police as soon as the injured Chintan was taken there but the police did not come to the hospital to draw up a first information report (FIR). Instead they are reported to have told doctors to continue with the treatment and that the FIR could be filed the next day. "I've no idea who may have attacked me," says Siwakoti. "I may have made many enemies by looking into cases as I do from Arun-III to the Lauda lease," he adds.

Besides being among the handful of activists responsible for the World Bank withdrawal from the controversial Arun-III project in 1995, Chintan is one of the few human rights activists who has consistently raised a voice against police excesses in the course of suppressing the Maoist movement. For his pains, he was arrested by the police two years ago and kept in custody for 11 days.