On December 1, the Maoist students vandalized school buses belonging to three schools including DPS, accusing the schools of charging exorbitant fees. And on December 3, the ANNISU-R sent a letter to DPS, located inside the compound of BP Koirala Institute of Health Sciences (BPKIHS), demanding donation for the union´s eighth district convention scheduled for December 16 and 17. [break]
Though the letter does not mention the sum demanded, the school said it has been asked to contribute Rs 200,000.
“They (ANNIRU-R) sent the letter to the school two days after the vandalism. They have demanded Rs 200,000,” said school principal Neelam Pal. She added that the letter has been forwarded to BPKIHS that manages the school as she does not have the authority to donate such a huge sum of money.
“I don´t understand why they are doing this to educational institutions,” Pal further said.
School operators have termed the tactic of first vandalizing the school bus and then demanding donation meaningful.
“It is clear that they planned to first intimidate the school by vandalizing its bus and then bargain for money, terming it donation,” said Dil Kumar Ban, Sunsari chairman of PABSON. He added that whatever the motive, the act of attacking a bus carrying school children is terrorism.
Ban´s argument is supported by the incident of December 1 when a school bus of Bishnu Higher Secondary School, Dharan, packed with school children, was attacked by ANNISU-R students as soon as the bus left the school compound.
The school´s principal Binendra Katawal claimed that the incident was pre-planned.
“A few months ago, they had demanded Rs 50,000 from me, saying the money would be used for their movement. They took revenge after I refused to give them anything,” Katawal added.
The school also received a similar letter from the union three days after the vandalism.
However, Madan Chudal, coordinator of ANNISU-R´s eighth district convention organizing committee, said the vandalism and the donation request were not related.
“The vandalism wasn´t for bargaining purpose,” he said. He also denied that the schools were asked to give huge sums in donations, and pointed to the fact that the letters do not mention the sum. “We don´t force anyone to give us donation. We accept voluntary donations,” he claimed.
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