Some 10 students, who claimed to be members of the All Nepal National Independent Student Union-Revolutionary (ANNISU-R), which is affiliated to the UCPN (Maoist), smashed the windshield and all other window-glasses of the bus (Ko 1 Kha 450).[break]
According to the driver Surendra Kumar Shrestha, the students who came on five motorcycles ransacked the bus when he was waiting for students at Jimi Chowk in Dharan Municipality-19. Shrestha was accompanied by only his assistant Dorje Tamang when the incident took place. No student had boarded the bus till that time.
"I had stopped the bus to pick up the first group of students at around 6 am," said Shrestha. "The [Maoist] students asked us to get off the bus and smashed all the window glasses with stones and bricks. They then ran away shouting slogans."
The ANNISU-R has taken the responsibility for vandalizing the DPS bus. Talking to Republica, C P Bajgain, a central committee member of ANNISU-R, said that they had to ´take action´ against the DPS bus in accordance with their policy.
Bajgain said that they vandalized the bus as the school is named after the capital of a foreign country. "The school should not be named after the capital of a foreign country. It should be named as Nepal Public School instead of Delhi Public School," said Bajgain. "In addition, the DPS bus is always jam-packed with students. It is not registered in Nepal, either."
According to Bajgain, they had gone to submit a memorandum to the principal of DPS on Monday but were not allowed to enter the school compound. "We were returned from the school gate," he said. "This is why we had to vandalize the bus as a warning."
Sagar Anupam, principal of DPS, said that he did not meet the students as it was not in his capacity to change the name and management procedures of the school, which is operating in Nepal as per an agreement between the governments of Nepal and India.
Police had arrested three local student leaders following the incident. But, they were freed later after the police realized that they are actually affiliated to the student union of the CPN-Maoist led by Mohan Baidya.
Last month, students close to the Baidya´s CPN-Maoist had also set a DPS bus on fire.
Meanwhile, in the wake of the incident, DPS has made public a letter by the ANNISU-R demanding Rs 150,000 as "donation" from the school.
In the letter, signed by ANNISU-R´s financial department chief Ratna Dhakal and Sharad Rasaili, coordinator of the nineteenth national convention scheduled to take place next month, donation amount has not been mentioned. But, along with the letter, ANNISU-R had handed over a receipt of Rs 150,000. "We have not given them money yet," Anupam said.
Samin Limbu, the president of the ANNISU-R, Sunsari, said they sent the letter and the receipt to the school to exert pressure on the DPS principal to discuss educational issues with them. "We do not intend to take such a huge amount as donation," he said. "The letter was sent just to pressure the DPS school."
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