KATHMANDU, Sept 13: Nepal Communist Party (NCP) cadres thrashed Nepali Congress (NC) members entering a venue of the NC's awareness campaign in Banke district on Thursday.
NC Banke chapter in its statement has said that cadres of the ruling NCP party entered their program venue at Sitapur of Khajura Rural Municipality and attacked members of the main opposition party, NC.
NC deplores attack on its cadres in Banke
During the attack, several people including NC's Banke President Kiran Koirala sustained serious injuries. Koirala's left hand has fractured.
Around five NCP cadres entered the hall, where NC's central representative Bidya Prasad Khanal, was addressing the gathering. “They tried to disrupt our program. We tried to convince them. They instead of listening to us, attacked us,” said Koirala.
In a press meet organized after the incident, Koirala said that NC cadres were feeling insecure in the place following the attack by the ruling party cadres. “When the NCP cadres tried to disturb our program, we immediately informed the chief district officer and district police chief. But they didn't respond despite our repeated requests,” he said adding that this was a planned attack and an abuse of authority by the ruling party.
“The police reached the incident site, only after one and a half hours after we informed them. Still, they didn't arrest any of those involved in the attack,” said Khanal. “This shows that the state agencies want to foil our awareness campaign.”
Former lawmaker Badsa Kurmi said that congress cadres were attacked as they exposed several cases of corruption and irregularities taking place at the local level.
