 ARPAN SHARMA GOOD COP: District police chief of Arghakhanchi, Krishna Hari Sharma (left), poses in front of vehicles destroyed during the Maoist attack on the police station in 2002. The base was never rebuilt and policemen live in tin sheds. |
Some 4,000 Maoists, some walking for more than a week from Piuthan and Rolpa in the west stormed government buildings and security bases in the town. Nearly 70 people, mostly soldiers and policemen were killed.
"They came down from the surrounding hills," recalls a local shopkeeper, "you could see their torches. I hid in my house, there was gun fire and bombs all night."
September 2002 was one of the bloodiest in the 10-year war with more than 500 deaths, including 50 policemen who were slaughtered in an attack in Sindhuli the day before in Sandhikarka.
As usual, attack helicopters flew out from Kathmandu and overflew the town. But they could do little because of the terrain and the fear of killing civilians in the close combat. The fighting continued till morning and the victorious Maoists marched out of town singing revolutionary songs.
Seven years later, there are signs that Sandhikarka is being rebuilt. A new City Hall is being built, and donors have put up a new building for the district education office. The army moved its base to the hilltop overlooking the town after the attack and is still there. However, it is the police who bore the brunt of the attack in 2002, who have since been neglected.
"Look at the state we are in," says district police chief Krishna Hari Sharma, pointing to corrugated metal sheds where policemen resting after night duty are trying to catch some sleep in the searing heat.
The only consolation for Sharma is that there are districts that are even worse off. For example, in Mangalsen, policemen still sleep in bunkers because the base destroyed during the battle there were never rebuilt.
"We've had to start from scratch here, after the attack all the documents, citizenship and land records were destroyed," says Sharma. The Land Revenue office has got a new 15-room building for only five officers, but Sharma's office is a godown that still has bullet holes from the battle.
Being in the middle of nowhere, Sandhikharka seems to fall between the cracks when it comes to post-war reconstruction. Bam Dev Gautam, when he was Home Minister, flew in by helicopter and spent the night here recently but that was only because he was on his way from Surkhet to Kathmandu and the helicopter developed a snag.
Sharma, however, is not the complaining type. Although it is not his brief, he has tried to galvanise the CDO and the political parties to improve the quality of education in Arghakhanchi. He has got the youth wings of the political parties to visit VDCs and got local businessmen to donate Rs 6,000 per year for 10 years for the education of underprivileged girl children.
"There isn't much crime here, and instead of sitting around doing nothing, I figured it would be better to help the district," says Sharma who started a similar education scheme during his former posting in Dailekh.
Sharma says he is worried by the negative image that police have of being corrupt, violent drunkards. A non-smoker, non-gambler and teetotaler, Sharma wants his work with improving education to help restore the people's respect for the force.
"Everywhere I've been I've tried to see what else I can do besides being a police," he says. Sharma's initiative will benefit 11 students in remote VDCs of Arghakhanchi in the first year and another 24 in the second.
