- Five die as cops, squatters clash
Police confirm three deaths - All huts destroyed
Maoist banda on Sunday
It was nothing sort of a gold rush. Thousands of former bonded laborers, landless people and ordinary folks from the mid- and far-western regions flocked to Dudejhari and set up makeshift homes over the past 10 days. But they were naive in their hopes and dreams.
The land hopefuls ignored frequent warnings from the police, and backed by the Maoists, they chose to fight the police rather than remove their newly set up huts. And the worst thing happened on Friday. Five of them were killed and dozens injured when police opened fire during a clash. Now they are a disillusioned lot.
While thousands packed up and rushed back to their places of origin Friday night, others are still looking in the surrounding areas for near and dear ones they became separated from during the hours-long clash.
“The Maoists asked us to settle in Dudejhari, work the fields, buy tractors and develop an irrigation system. The offer was hard for us landless to resist. Now some of us have lost our lives,” says 62-year-old Lal Bahadur BK, who came all the way from Sadhepani-7, Kailali to settle in the forest. He is still looking for his wife Basudevi BK who has gone out of contact since Friday evening. “She is nowhere to be found,” says a disillusioned BK.
The squatters say contact has been lost with some people, mainly women, after they ran helter-skelter to save themselves during the clash. Gopal BK, 15, is also looking for his mother, but has not yet succeeded. His family came from the Bipnagar landless camp in Kailali.
A dozen seriously injured are receiving treatment at Nepalgunj Hospital. Forty-year-old Malati came to the forest area as the Maoists spread the message in the far-western districts that the landless would be distributed plots of land in Kailali.
"See, even the bullet has not been removed from my leg. No one is concerned about our pathetic condition over here. I think I will lose my life just because of my greed for land," Malati says, lying in a hospital bed at the Teaching Hospital in Kohalpur, Banke.
Gopal Saud of Sahajpur village, who received a bullet injury in his right leg, also shares the pathetic agony.
"I was rushed directly to hospital immediately after I was shot. I don´t know whether other members of my family are alive or not," said Kali Prasad Sanjyal of Dodhara, Kailali. Three of the 16 injured who were admitted to the hospital have been referred to Kathmandu and Lucknow, India due to the seriousness of their condition.
According to Bir Bahadur Chaudhary, a local, a caravan of landless people left the place overnight.
Besides the landless, even commoners from as far away as Bajura, Achham and Doti had flocked to Dudejhari in the hope of getting expensive tarai land. Around 10 thousand people from across the mid - and far-western regions had come to settle here.
According to Chief District Officer Hari Krishna Paudel, almost all the squatters have already returned to their places of origin. “While some of them were really landless, others came in the hope of getting some expensive land by the highway,” says Paudel.
Three squatters including Narendra BK, Sanjaya Dhakal and Ruplal Dagaura and policeman Padam Aer were killed in the clash, according to the CDO. However, the Maoists said five squatters were killed. According to Maoist district secretary Hari Chaudhary, squatters Lutke BK and Indra BK were also killed in the police firing.
With Friday´s clash still haunting people´s minds, Dudejhari is yet to return to normal.
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