 KESHAV THOKER |
The series of pictures on the site are high-resolution images. Each face in the picture, including that of a boy who looks 12 is identifiable. What is even more shocking is that the men seem to be enjoying what they are doing, and are not even trying to hide their faces.
Incident Two. This week Kathmandu's Ring Road area was blocked off for two days due to demonstrations by relatives of the two men who were killed in an accident when their motorbike was hit by a public bus. On Monday, an unruly mob attacked a van trying to take children to school. When the van driver tried to reason with the mob by explaining he was transporting small children he got hit by a brick. Three other children and a teacher were hurt. (see pic).
These are two isolated incidents in the Valley, but across the country women accused of being "witches" are being tortured, and nine people suspected of being child traffickers have been lynched to death in the Tarai. Violence has become the norm. Police are mute spectators when the militant youth wings of various parties beat up innocent people on the streets.
Whether it is in the city or rural Nepal, domestic violence against women has become a way of life. Husbands beat up their wives, in-laws pour kerosene on newly-married brides and set them alight, women are scarred by acid or sexually abused in the family. Victims stay quiet, silently bearing the torture and pain because they can't come out and say anything. And why would they? The security apparatus and the justice system is so weak and impunity so rampant that the perpetrators get away. Every time.
The Ratna Park incident was never filed at the police station. Apart from the blogsite and some international coverage, the local media stayed mum. It is still not known who the woman is, and the men who were involved went scot free again.
In the past decade, Nepalis have learnt to live with a lot of hardships. We thought that with the end of war there would be peace. The law and order situation is actually worse. The government whose fundamental task is the safety of citizens, doesn't seem to care. No child must get up in the morning with the fear that she and her friends may end up in hospital because the bus carrying her to school was smashed up by people not much older than her. No woman should fear walking around the city because she may be stripped and beaten.
Even our anger is politically motivated: we come out to protest when a foreigner allegedly says the Buddha was born in India. We burn tyres when oaths are taken in Hindi because all this is an attack on sovereignty. What good is sovereignty when we are not safe in our own sovereign country?
