Chief of Dailekh Police Dipak Basnet himself visited the site of incident Monday and prepared a preliminary report which put the material loss of GMR, which is currently carrying out construction of Upper Karnali Hydropower Project, at Rs 11 million.[break]
The report, however, is silent on the identity of the perpetrators. “We have yet to know who carried out the attack,” said Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) Basnet said.
DSP Basnet said an unidentified group of around 25-30 persons had barged into the GMR´s premises at about 4 pm chanting slogans that the Upper Karnali project was not in their interest and set ablaze all three office buildings of the company. They fled the scene after half an hour.
The office security guard Nara Bahadur Bohora and trade union leader Toya Bista were injured in the attack and they are being treated in Surkhet, according to GMR. Assistant manager of the company Pradip Nepal said staffers who were out of contact since the incident, have come into contact.
The locals vented their ire on GMR even with the police team but claimed they were not involved in the attack. “We don´t know who were behind the attack,” said Bam Bahadur BC, president of the Upper Karnali Stakeholders´ Committee which has been obstructing construction over a dispute on the compensation for the land acquired by the project.
The Maoists that had put pressure to stop the construction of the project terming the agreement as against national interest in the past, has distanced itself from the attack. “We stand by our stance that the Upper Karnali agreement is not in the national interest, but we have no reasons to attack the office,” said secretariat member of Bheri-Karnali State Committee Krishna Bahadur Dhamala.
Related story
SC issues interim order to not extend GMR’s term
