Chapagaun area tense over suspected kidnapping

KATHMANDU, June 26: With cases of kidnapping going up of late, locals in Kathmandu Valley are gripped with heightened fear that their children could fall prey to the kidnappers anytime. The growing sense of insecurity seems to have virtually evaporated the trust the locals would otherwise put on strangers ´visiting´ their localities. [break]



On Friday morning, locals at Chhampi area in Lalitpur held two of a group of five stranger youth visiting their locality and severely beat them up, alleging that the youths were about to kidnap local children. Three others managed to flee the scene.



Agitating locals said the youth had allegedly kidnapped four local children, but one of them had managed to flee from their clutches.



However, the two youths -- Amrit Bhusal and Durga Bahadur Maharjan -- who are kept at Metropolitan Police Range Office, Lalitpur, said they were just visiting the village and denied that they were involved in kidnapping as claimed by the locals.



The irate locals mercilessly thrashed them before handing them over to the nearest police post in Chapagaun. Police immediately rushed them to Patan Hospital for treatment.



But the move further agitated the locals who suspected that the police move could have been intended to help the ´kidnappers´ escape without any action.



Chapagaun area remained tense throughout the day as the agitating locals attempted to vandalize the police unit and targeted police personnel on duty with bricks, demanding that the youth be handed back to them.



Police had to lob several rounds of tear gas shells as the locals began attacking the police post and scuffling with police personnel on duty. Eyewitnesses said over half a dozen locals and police personnel were injured in the clashes. One teenage girl fainted after a tear gas cell hit her.



As there was no sign of receding the tension between locals and the police till late afternoon, District Administration Office, Lalitpur, clamped a curfew beginning 6:30 p.m. to 4 a.m. on Saturday.



SP Kedar Man Singh Bhandari, chief of the Metropolitan Police Range Office, Lalitpur, said the curfew was enforced to avoid any untoward situation. He said effort was underway to resolve the tension through dialogue.



Meanwhile, in a similar incident, people in Galkopakha area in Kathmandu beat up two youths on the charge of attempting to kidnap Shiva Pun, a manpower agent in the area. Locals foiled the kidnapping attempt, beat up the youths and handed them over to police.

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