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 BADRI POUDEL |
I was in my cubicle working on the next issue of Himal Khabarpatrika. The regular Sunday morning meeting was taking place down the corridor...I saw a gang of 25 people heading purposefully towards the meeting hall. There was a big commotion, a chair came crashing through one of the windows...When I looked into the meeting room, it looked like a battlefield. They had pinned down the terrified staff inside and were beating them mercilessly. "You dare write against the workers?" they shouted. They were searching for Rameswor Bohara who had written an investigative piece on Maoist threats and extortion.
Just then Kunda Dixit, Nepali Times editor and co-publisher of Himalmedia, came out of his room and three attackers immediately pounced on him. As blows fell, he said: "Is this your democracy? Is this the new Nepal you are trying to build?" This was dangerous, and I tried to get Kunda Dai out of there.
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I told the attackers, "Please don't use force, let's discuss this." They asked me who I was. I said I was a reporter, thinking that would be safer. But they started raining blows on my face. I collapsed on the floor as blood started spurting out of my mouth. Kunda Dai tried to rescue me, but they hit him again from behind.
Later that evening, I heard Maoist union leader Salikram Jammarkattel lie in parliament and say that it us who had attacked the Maoists! He repeated that on the BBC Nepali Service later that evening. But the very next day on Avenues TV he said it was indeed his group that had attacked us and he threatened to do it again.
I was never afraid during the war. Now I fear the Maoists, and I fear for my country.
Results of the 2008 CA elections broken down by constituency in this map published in the special election issue of Nepali Times.
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