Dal Bahadur Shrestha was a teacher at the Surya Primary School in Pyuthan. He got so sick of armed Maoists coming to him to extort money and forcing him to feed them, that he commited suicide last week. Shrestha had started showing signs of mental stress and paranoia. He had even been taken to India for treatment of his mental condition and had just returned. But on Saturday, he ran away from home to a nearby school and hung himself.
Similarly, Dhana Bahadur Sarki, a dalit from Bijuli VDC was visited by the army last month and was interrogated. Ever since, he had been muttering to everyone that he was not a Maoist and showed signs of mentally instablity. Last week, after seeing an army patrol approaching his village again, he was overcome with anxiety and ran away. He was later found dead.