Ambika Bhandari, a member of the Dhankuta district committee of the Nepal Working Journalists Association and correspondent for Jana Aastha, has still not been freed, six months after she was detained. The police brutally tortured Bhandari when she was taken into custody from her lodgings in Dhankuta on 16 December without a warrant or any proof. She was arrested around 7PM and then taken to Dhankuta's district police office, where she was beaten with pipes and kicked for almost two hours, until she fainted. From 17-21 December the police kept Bhandari on the cold cement floor blindfolded, handcuffed. She was not even given water to drink.

It is said that Bhandari was arrested because she went to watch a mass meeting organised by the Maoists and also sheltered some insurgents. Of the people arrested in Dhankuta [around the same time], two journalists are still in detention. Professor, advocate and journalist Thakur Baral is also completing some six months in detention. When representatives of the International Red Cross went to meet them, the administration hid all the political detainees in a storage room. There has been much talk about human rights abuses on a large scale in Sunsari and Sankhuwasabha, but the situation in Dhankuta is equally bad, local intellectuals tell us. They talk about how mentally unstable people, wandering musicians, pregnant women, and even septuagenarians have been beaten to within inches of death.

People bear physical traces of beatings and electrocution even four months after the fact. Innocent people have been victimised by security forces, for allegedly being Maoist supporters. On the other hand, the administration has been unable to take any action against people who have joined or support the Maoists lured by the prospect of financial or political gain, or simply from fear of retribution. This has increased speculation that even the administration is not free from prejudice.