He argued that the issue should not be made further complicated as she took the action under the sway of emotion. "Begum herself has already issued a statement expressing sadness over the matter. Therefore she should be pardoned," Gachchhadar told reporters upon his arrival at Gadhimai to observe the festival. Also, Minister for Tourism and Civil Aviation Sarat Singh Bhandari and Assistant Minister for Physical Planning and Works visited the Hindu shrine where around 15,000 water buffaloes and countless goats were sacrificed on Tuesday and Wednesday. Earlier, former kings used to visit the shrine during the festival.
In her statement issued on November 17, Begum, who is from the Gachchhadar-led Madhesi People´s Rights Forum (Democratic), had termed the incident as "unexpected and sad". But she claimed that the CDO´s behavior was the main reason to trigger the incident.
On November 10, Begum slapped Bhandari four times inside his office reportedly for sending a run-down vehicle to receive the state minister upon her arrival at the local airport in the district.
Meanwhile, government employees have padlocked all the government offices in the district demanding action against the state minister for the act. "We will not allow the offices to function until action is taken against her," said Satchitananda Singh, chairman of Civil Servants´ Union Parsa.
Meanwhile, over 12 pilgrims were hurt when UCPN (Maoist) cadres clashed with security personnel as the former greeted the deputy prime minister and other ministers with black flags at the place. Five of them sustained head injuries, according to the festival organizing committee.
The festival took place despite protests by national as well as international rights activists against the mass sacrifice.
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