Mandales using army and policemen to create anarchy
Kathmandu Post
ITAHARI, May 31 - Police arrested 22 persons, including a Nepali Army (NA) soldier, and two dozen others were injured during a protest Wednesday by youths in Itahari, Sunsari district, who wanted to join the NA.
No sooner had some 65 youths from the eastern districts, whose applications were put on hold by the NA's divisional headquarters in Itahari, begun rallying in the area, than vigilantes numbering over a dozen infiltrated the rally and began vandalizing local shops and vehicles.
However, the situation was brought under control by cadres of the political parties before it was too late. During the scuffle, local youths had apprehended four NA men and handed them over to police. However, three of them managed to escape from the area police office, according to locals. NA soldier Bikas GC of Rangeli base camp, who was injured in the incident, has been kept in police custody.
The vigilantes in their distinct look with "police-cut" hair style, had vandalized half-a-dozen vehicles while ordering local shopkeepers to down their shutters. They also manhandled passers-by.
"It was natural for us to express our anger since our applications were put on hold at the last moment even though we have reached all the way here from afar," said Devendra Giri of Dhankuta.
"But it was beyond our wildest imagination how our simple sloganeering turned into such a chaotic situation so rapidly."
"Some unidentified men managed to get into our program and began vandalizing the vehicles and shops, something we had never imagined," said Maitaraj Limbu who came here from Taplejung.
The seven political parties said the vigilante-infiltrated mob also chanted slogans against loktantra and the political parties. Scuffles erupted between the vigilantes and party cadres after the mob began tearing up the flags of sister organizations.
"It was a clear example of how vigilantes have been used to create instability and chaos out of such minor incidents," said Narayan Shrestha, municipal committee president of the Nepali Congress.
However, the police, in an attempt to cover up the involvement of vigilantes, initiated action against the arrested youths under the Public Security Act.
Spokesman at eastern regional headquarters,Tek Bahadur Chand, denied having encouraged such activity.
Meanwhile, issuing a press statement, the Ministry of Defense in Kathmandu also denied that the NA was backing the incident. It requested one and all not to swallow such rumors.
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