Talking to media persons after a meeting held to assess overall security situation in the country at the Home Ministry, Gachchhadar said the meeting concluded that the Maoists were trying to make their protests violent.
Government ministers including Home Minister, chiefs of Nepal Police, National Investigation Department and senior officials of Armed Police Force, among others, were present in the meeting.
“Though the Maoists had given assurance to Home Minister that the protests would be totally peaceful, today´s protests were not found to be peaceful,” he said.
The meeting that lasted for about two hours concluded that the Maoists had violated the Comprehensive Peace Accord (CPA) and various agreements including 12-point agreement and 25-point agreement reached in the past through their recent activities. “The protest activities will ultimately push the country towards confrontation,” Gachchhadar said.
The meeting decided to effectively mobilize security personnel to contain violent activities during the protests.
Gachchhadar said the government will punish those involved in arson and vandalizing private and public properties by taking laws in their hands. “Security personnel had tried their level best to contain such activities today,” he said. “They will further strengthen measures to contain such activities tomorrow [Monday].”
Referring to the Maoists allegation that the government was inciting violence, Gachchhadar said, “How would you say that the government is inciting violence when 22 police personnel including a DSP are critically injured but only one or two Maoists were injured on the other hand?”
He said that the Maoist activists had set ablaze furniture at the office of a campus chief in Rajbiraj, vandalized several vehicles including those belonging to state ministers and attacked police personnel on duty.
Addressing a press conference, Home Minister Bhim Rawal said the government had exercised maximum restraint. “The protests are against the provisions made in the Comprehensive Peace Accord. This will ultimately put the ongoing peace process into jeopardy,” he said.
Rawal said the government is in favor of dialogues. “We had made effort to settle the Maoist protests peacefully till the last moment,” he added.
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