With the controversy provoked by the stoning of Crown Prince Paras' motorcade in the melee after the
3 December Baneswor rally, few people noted the brutal attack on Ayan Bahadur Magar, a student union member from Amrit Science Campus. Magar nearly died after a bunch of ear-ringed hooligans attacked him with swords and khukuris and left him for dead in the middle of the city. His own student union and the campus declined to publicise the incident as did the UML, with which he is affiliated. Magar currently lies seriously wounded in hospital. He was assaulted at about 6PM by a group of armed men on six motorcycles who stopped when they saw Magar was alone. They attacked him with the knives, nearly slicing off his arm. Passers-by took him to hospital. "I was scared for the first time in my life. These were hoodlums working under government protection," says Magar, adding it was the same group that tried to attack the UML office after the Crown Prince stoning incident. He cautions that more student union members (many of whom are hardly known to the public) are at risk of such attacks in the near future.