Sociologists say it is an indication of a collapsed social set-up. Police officials say they won’t be of much help unless the people themselves show restraint.
The lynchings in the Tarai that set off the trend started partly with a public notice aired through local radio stations by the Siraha District Administration Office. It warned the locals to beware of suspicious kidnappers disguised as seasonal beggars. The notice was enough to create panic in Kanakpati, Dhanusha, where a wandering Indian woman beggar was brutally thrashed. Prompt hospitalization could not save her life. More killings followed.
Indian beggars arriving in the eastern Tarai area in hopes of good alms at the time of harvest every May-June is nothing new. There is even a term in Maithili -- Kadouri -- to denote such beggars. Yet, people turned hostile to the beggars this year. Out of 15 killings throughout the eastern plains in May, most victims were Kadouris, and mostly women. Dhanusa alone recorded seven casualties. Some Kadouris were burnt to death.
It now seems that the capital Kathmandu is in the throes of this malady of instant justice. The brutal murder after kidnapping of Khyati Shrestha and the seeming acceptance of physical violence and even murder to defend one’s children are seen as chiefly responsible for the vigilante violence in Kathmandu. The fact that Khyati was murdered by an acquaintance who was also her former landlord exacerbated a sense of mistrust in society.
The trend of seeing a Biren Shrestha in every suspect has gripped Kathmandu like a frenzy.
On Tuesday, a petty fight among teenagers in Thimi, Bhaktapur led to the death of two of them and the critical injury of two more. Last week, locals not only nearly lynched a trespasser who entered a private house to fondle children but also created havoc in Gongabu and poured their fury on security personnel.
Earlier at Chapagaon in Lalitpur, two youths were mercilessly beaten up for allegedly attempting to kidnap local children. The locals did not stop at that. Enraged, they stalked the local police for stopping them from killing the ‘kidnappers’.
Kidnappings have become common in the capital. In the last eight months, 29 cases were reported to the Metropolitan Police. Police themselves say many more cases were not reported by the victims and their families.
Says senior sociologist Chaitanya Mishra, the whole scenario of aggression and chaos has come out of the transition -- breaking down of old values and budding of new ones.
“People do not see any social set-up to abide by,” he says. “This is because demolition (of a social order) is quicker than building ( a new one).”
Mishra says such abberrations erupt when the system fails from top to bottom.
“Look at the beleaguered process of constitution-making and at the absence of local bodies,” he says. “Who shall one trust so as to limit oneself to acting like a responsible citizen?” He points out that the alarming trend of acting on unfounded rumours must be stopped. Unfortunately, he does not see the leadership making any initiatives towards that.
Police for their part say the authorities can hardly tackle the problem if people do not exercise restraint. In fact, police have already appealed to people throughout the country to inform them in case they see any suspicious individuals, instead of taking the law into their own hands.
Spokesman of the Nepal Police Binod Singh insists that without the people themselves being responsible and prudent, the problem will not end. He says the practice of taking the law into one’s own hands is the crux of the problem.
“People should help us. It has to be the state that prosecutes, not the mob that determines,” he adds. He told Republica that an appeal has been sent out nationwide to cooperate with police. According to him, a text message has been sent out to all mobile phone users mentioning the newly set-up police hotline (16600141516/9849091139/4412748) to tackle this fresh security threat.
Meanwhile, the Home Ministry in a statement on Wednesday, appealed to people to stop doing as they please when they come across suspicious criminal activity.
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