KATHMANDU, Dec 31: The relatives of the two youths who were killed in police firing at Balkumari in Lalitpur on Friday announced that they are not ready to receive the bodies. Tek Bahadur Katuwal, maternal uncle of the deceased Sujan Raut, said that they will not receive the dead body until their 8-point demands are fulfilled.

A meeting chaired by Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal at his office on Saturday evening had discussed issues related to relief and compensation to the victims with their family members. During the meeting, the victims’ families presented an 8-point demand to the government. Katuwal said that despite verbal assurances from the government that the demand would be met, no agreement has been reached with the victims’ families.

“We submitted an 8-point demand. Although the government promised to fulfill the demands, no decision has been taken yet. We will not receive the body until they take a decision. If our demands are not met, we will go on a strike,” said Katuwal.

The family members of the deceased have raised concerns about the inquiry committee formed by the government. They have also demanded compensation as well as guarantee of employment.

Katuwal, uncle of the deceased Sujan, said, “We are not satisfied with the investigation committee formed by the government. An independent judicial investigation committee should be formed with representatives of the victim side as well after dissolving it. Our question is-how fair will the investigation conducted by the party who fired the shots be? We shall not accept the investigation from those who were involved in the shooting. We have submitted an 8-point demand including proper compensation, relief and employment for the victim's family. We will not even allow the post-mortem of the body to be done until our demands are met.”

The bodies of the deceased have been kept at KIST Hospital and Patan Hospital. Some relatives of the deceased have arrived in Kathmandu. On Friday, Sujan Raut of Dailekh and Birendra Shah of Doti were killed at Balkumari in Lalitpur when the police opened fire on a group of youngsters who were staging a demonstration after they denied an opportunity to fill the application form for a language test under the Employment Permit System (EPS) for jobs in Korea.

The government has formed an inquiry committee headed by DIG Lalmani Acharya of the Kathamndu Valley Police Office to investigate the incident. The investigation committee consists of Assistant Chief District Officer (CDO) of Lalitpur Amardeep Sunuwar and Deputy Investigation Director of the National Investigation Department Basu Sigdel.

The relatives of the deceased argue that the investigation committee, which includes individuals involved in the shooting, cannot conduct an impartial investigation. They have demanded the formation of another independent investigation committee with the participation of the victims’ family.

The government concluded that there was negligence on the part of the security agencies in the incident and suspended some police officers. The government suspended Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) Umesh Lamsal, who was the field commander of the police, and Sub-Inspector of Police (SI) Bodhraj Danuwar, PSO of Physical Infrastructure Minister Prakash Jwala. Lalitpur police chief Siddhi Bikram Shah has been relieved from their duties by the police headquarters.

Besides, director of EPS Korea branch in Lalitpur Balkumari, Gurudatta Subedi has been suspended, while the Chief District Officer of Lalitpur, Rudra Prasad Pandit, has been summoned to the Ministry of Home Affairs for further investigation.

 
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