ANNISU-R imposed the district-wide educational strike, accusing the police of framing two of its cadres on a false charge of vandalism at a local private school one month ago. [break]
Rajendra Baral and Dadhi Rimal, central committee member and district vice chairman of ANNISU-R respectively, have been accused of involvement in vandalizing Emerald Academy of Bhadrapur on March 22. ANNISU-R said it had been compelled to call for the strike after the police briefly arrested Rimal on Wednesday.
As schools have just begun the new academic session, a a majority of private and community-based schools were not running classes on Thursday. However, even those schools that were running classes were forced to close down.
The police claim Baral and Rimal were directly involved in vandalizing the school. The school has claimed that they resorted to vandalism after the school administration refused to pay them donations.
However, ANNISU-R has claimed that Baral and Rimal had gone to Emerald Academy to form their commitee in the school. "The unfortunate incident occured as they were not allowed to form the committee, said ANNISU-R.
"They asked for Rs 10,000 in donation. When we said we would not give more than Rs 2,000, they said it was an insult to them," said Tilak Pyakurel, principal of the school.
A few days later, a group of ANNISU-R went to Emeral Academy to form their committee. "When we urged them to reconsider their decision, they just went berserk," said he. "Forming the committee was just an excuse. They had planned to vandalize our school after we refused to pay donation."
However, Agni Dahal, central committee member of ANNISU-R, said: "It was just a misunderstanding. We wanted to sort it out through talks. But, the police, framed our friends." Dahal also warned of indefinite strike if the police did not withdraw charges against Baral and Rimal.
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