Basking in the festive atmosphere of the janaandolan along the way, he reached the grounds of Tribhuvan University where he was a masters student in economics. Protestors were now clashing with police and the Chokchisapani, Lamaswanra native, who was then 31, got mingled in the crowd. [break]
Moments later the protestors sensed that the police had ran out of tear gas shells and started to push the men in uniform back. It was around noon and Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) Sharad Chand went down, having been struck by a stone pelted by one of the protestors.
The irate crowd pounced upon the prone officer and started to thrash him mercilessly. Chand´s weapon, cap and swagger-stick had been snatched away and Laudari feared that the man would be killed. He somehow felt that he could save Chand´s life as the protestors were mostly his fellow students. “I climbed on top of him and spread out my hands to stop the blows,” Laudari reminisces.
He felt that the authorities would turn hostile and become more brutal in their clampdown if a police officer was killed. “Despite my efforts, a man still struck him in the eye from behind,” he adds.
A sub-inspector was taking position to open fire even as Laudari was trying to lift Chand off the ground. “I hid behind Chand to save myself from the likely bullet. I got hold of his collar and carrying him in front of my chest handed him over to other policemen,” he remembers. “But the sub-inspector didn´t even thank me for saving a senior officer´s life,” he adds ruefully.
It was still drizzling when he returned at around three and decided to seek shelter. “I entered the girls´ hostel fearing that the police might attack the boys´ hostel. But an Armed Police Force team broke into the girls´ hostel and started to hit out indiscriminately,” Laudari says. He also got beaten up.
Dr Bryan Cob, who was volunteering his services during the April uprising, pulled him from the clutch of the security personnel but he was already suffering from a deep cut below the left eye, apart from several blows to the torso.
A Superintendent of Police (SP) -- he doesn´t know the name -- took the injured Laudari to Bir Hospital and a police constable put him in an ambulance in the evening after his treatment.
Getting national publicity
Laudari had seen cameras flashing during the day´s incident but didn´t know who were taking the pictures. “I was elated on seeing the picture in the newspaper the next day. But I was also sad as my mother, upon seeing the same picture, called me back home and many took me for a policeman dressed as a civilian,” he recalls.
But he didn´t return to his village. He didn´t go out for the next three days because of his injury, but on the fourth day he did rejoin the demonstrators who included youth leader Gagan Thapa. “If not for anything else, I had to get back into the demonstrations to show that I was not a police infiltrator,” he reasons.
He remembers joking with Thapa about having saved a DSP. He continued to come out onto the streets but was not injured again. When he went to the Janaandolan Injured Management Committee formed after the success of the uprising, he was asked to bring the recommendations of a political party.
“I presented them the newspaper with my picture as proof of injury and refused to receive an identity card on the strength of recommendations from a political party,” he says. He received an identity card (No. 1417) certifying that he was injured during the mass movement and also Rs 10,000 in compensation.
After the restoration of democracy he tried to meet up with DSP Chand, who has since been promoted to SP and is currently serving in Kapilvastu, but he has not succeeded. “If no one else, Chand should have remembered me at least,” he argues. He remained in the capital for another year and returned home after passing the permanent teachers´ exams.
He now teaches at Purkot Secondary School, Basantapur after stints at Kanya Devi Lower Secondary School in Deurali, Tanahun and at Amarjyoti School, Keshavtar.
He has since married and is the proud father of a daughter. “My wife didn´t know about my participation in the janaandolan and was surprised when she came to know of it,” he says.
Laudari was sought for in the capital after he suddenly vanished from the scene but he never knew about that. “I could not establish contact as I was out of the Valley,” he states.
Laudari, like every other Nepali, wants lasting peace in the country but is disillusioned with the political parties. “There is no sign of the constitution bring framed. People want a real constitution, not a mere piece of paper. But there is no chance for a people´s constitution now,” he rues.
He also complained that the government pays no attention to people injured in the janaandolan. “Economic conditions would have improved had political conditions gotten better. But it didn´t happen,” he talks like an economist. He passed his masters in first division but is teaching at a remote school. “I have to do it out of compulsion,” he confides.
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