Nine Royal Nepalese Army (RNA) soldiers pretending to be Maoists, Saturday infiltrated a peaceful CPN-UML gathering at Kalimati in Baglung and attempted to foil the programme.
The army men also arrested journalist Hari Narayan Gautam and freed him after three hours for revealing their identities.
According to Gautam, who is also secretary of the Federation of Nepalese Journalists (FNJ), Baglung chapter, the security personnel seized him from the programme venue, accusing him of having revealed their identities while they were ill-treating UML alternative central member, Ramji Sharma.
"While I was talking with the security men, Sharma came along," Gautam said, adding, "And when Sharma asked for their identities, they lied to him saying that they were comrade Rajesh and so on, of Myagdi."
He added, "They seized me as soon as I told Sharma that they were not Maoists, but security personnel," said Gautam. The security men took him to 23-brigade of the RNA and released him after three hours.
Sharma had requested them to go out of the programme venue, as it was the party's internal gathering.
The programme was organized at the Bishwokarma proposed Secondary School, Kalimati in the district.
Meanwhile, issuing separate statements UML and the FNJ in the district, have condemned the incident.
"It is utterly condemnable that soldiers attempted to foil the peaceful gathering, that too pretending to be Maoists," the UML, Baglung branch said.
"We condemn the act of arresting the journalist who was covering the peaceful demonstration," the statement issued by FNJ, Dhaulagiri chapter president Rajeshraj Rajbhandari said.
However, RNA spokesman of the brigade Hemjung Thapa, said it was due to a "misunderstanding".
Source: Kantipur Report
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