Plainclothes cops incite violence


POST REPORT
KATHMANDU, Sept 6 - At least a dozen journalists covering the ongoing street protests in New Road area were manhandled, and some seriously injured when plainclothes and uniformed police personnel baton-charged and used tear gas shells on them on Tuesday.
Plainclothes security personnel started to pelt stones at security personnel disguising themselves as journalists and encouraged uniformed security personnel to rain batons and physically assault journalists. In the incident, photographer Rosan Rai of Himalaya Times, Bhimsen Rajbahak of Communication Corner, Kiran Nepal of Himal Media, Bimal Gautam of World News Online, J P Gupta of Disha Nirdesh were injured. Bharat Sahi of Chuli Weekly has been hospitalized.

Journalists caught four plainclothes security personnel. One of them who identified himself as Uddhav Thapa from Mahendra Police Club, managed to escape with the help of a uniformed police officer.

Protesting police atrocity, journalists demonstrated for half-an-hour in New Road chanting slogans against police brutality. The demonstration converted into a corner meeting at Pipalbot. Vice-President of Federation of Nepalese Journalists Gangadhar Parajuli, Reporters' Club Nepal's President Rishi Dhamala and journalist Kiran Nepal condemned police atrocity, and said it was a blatant assault on free press by the state.

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