The cadres poured petrol on Sanjay Napit, 25, along with his motorcycle before setting fire. Napit -- a permanent resident of Ramgram municipality, Nawalparasi and a teacher at Butwal Eminent School -- is undergoing treatment at Lumbini Zonal Hospital with his legs totally burnt along with right hand. [break]
A group of four youths asked him to stop his motorcycle when he was going toward Traffic Chowk in Butwal from Shankarnagar of Rupandehi district and suddenly poured petrol on him, he claimed, . “They didn´t even allow me to get off the bike and set fire accusing me of defying the banda,” Napit said. “I had already given them the motorcycle keys but they still went ahead and set me on fire,” he added. The locals had put out the fire on his body with water and sand.
Police, who reached the spot immediately after the incident, took Napit to the hospital for treatment where he is said to be out of danger. But the hospital said he needs to be kept at the hospital for a few more days.
DSP at the Area Police Office, Butwal Dan Bahadur Karki called the incident a barbaric act. “The persons who set Napit on fire for riding a motorcycle had themselves came in motorcycles,” DSP Karki said. Police have arrested Govinda Pangeni and Tika Ram Bhandari of Kerwani, Rupandehi in connection with the incident.
Meanwhile our correspondent Maheshwar Chamling Rai reported from Udayapur that the shutdown affected life in the district with the students appearing for the chance and regular examinations of the eleventh grade being the hardest hit. Examinees had to walk up to 10 kilometers to sit for the exams.
Similarly Palpa district has seen eight days of banda in the past two weeks starting from the strike called by Chhetri Samaj on May 11, according to our correspondent Tek Narayan Bhattarai.
Police on Tuesday arrested six cadres of the Yadav led party for allegedly vandalizing public vehicles at Charpane of Jhapa. They had vandalized vehicles for defying the shutdown.
A taxi (Ba 1 Ja 3900) was torched by the banda enforcers at Satdobato in Lalitpur but public and private vehicles were to be seen on the road, albeit in smaller numbers, defying the banda. Police said around a dozen banda enforcers were arrested from across the Valley and were released later in the day. Businessmen and tourism entrepreneurs took out a motorcycle rally in Kathmandu in the afternoon protesting against frequent shutdowns. Hundreds of common people had participated in the rally organized jointly by Nepal Tourism Board, Federation of Nepalese Chamber of Commerce and Industry (FNCCI), and Nepal Chamber of Commerce, among others.
The rally that started from Tridevi Marga, Thamel ended in a corner meeting at the same spot after passing through Durbar Marga, Jai Nepal Cinema, Putali Sadak, Pradarshani Marga, Bhadrakali, Tripureshwar and Jawalakhel before returning through New Road and Jamal.
Addressing the corner meeting FNCCI Suraj Vaidya demanded that the new constitution should ban strikes to ensure the rights of the citizenry.
Meanwhile, our Itahari correspondent reports various employees´ organizations shut down government offices in Sunsari district for the second straight day Tuesday demanding the release of staffers involved in recommending citizenship certificate for an Indian national.
Secretary of Jalpapur Village Development Committee (VDC) Bhupal Shrestha and government employee Prakash Phuyal were arrested by police after being found to have illegally recommended Jagir Miya of Arariya, Bihar for Nepali citizenship allegedly taking a kickback of IRs 35,000.
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