KATHMANDU, July 7: Two of the four youngsters mistaken for kidnappers and bashed up by locals of Dhunchopakha in Bhaktapur at 1 p.m. Tuesday, have died while undergoing treatment at B & B Hospital. [break]
The locals had thrashed the four alleging that they were trying to kidnap a local teenager.
The locals of Dhunchopakha chased the four to Chapacho area and mercilessly beat them up. Police later rescued the four and took them to B & B Hospital for treatment where two of them, both unidentified teenagers, died. The other two, Basanta Lama of Sanothimi, 15, and Saroj Rai* of Okhaldhunga district and now resident of Koteshwar, are undergoing treatment in a critical condition.
A police officer at the Metropolitan Police Circle Office, Thimi said the whole incident was a misunderstanding.
On Monday, Basanta Lama was beaten up by a teenager named Subash Adhikari in Bode area. Lama arrived back in the area with nine friends on Tuesday afternoon to exact revenge. They thrashed Adhikari at a teashop near his rented home where the locals intervened and the group had to flee. The locals mistook them for kidnappers and gave chase while others along the way also joined in out of the same impression. Four of them were eventually overtaken at Chapacho and beaten up. The remaining escaped the wrath of the enraged locals.
The trail of the chase from Dhunchopakha to Chapacho covers some three kilometers of Purano Thimi area in Madhyapur-Thimi Municipality.
Incidentally, an eight-year-old boy, Manoj Moktan, had gone missing from nearby Nagadesh on Monday. This also contributed to the misunderstanding. Police said the boy has now come into contact.
Police arrived at Chapacho within 10 minutes after the teenagers were beaten up, says DSP at Thimi Circle Kiran Bajracharya. Anupam BK, who was involved with the group but escaped any thrashing by taking refuge at the home of a friend, could not even identify the dead. He was later apprehended by police while undergoing treatment for bruises to his hand. According to police, he knew members of the group only as Basanta’s friends.
Basanta, son of carpet factory owner Nabin Lama, who was originally from Ramechhap, is an eighth grader. Nabin, while talking to myrepublica.com at the hospital, described his son as a sober chap who rarely did anything other than study. He says he had no knowledge about his son harboring animosity toward anybody. Anupam is a student at Navajyoti School, Koteshwar, where Basanta also studies.
Police found some swords and knives in bags that the teenagers brought with them. They reached Dhunchopakha on foot and caught up with Adhikari, a college student, who has been living there with his mother since the past eight years.
Asked about the incident, locals prefer not to say much. ‘We don’t know anything except that we saw a crowd running after some teenagers,’ said an old woman. Basanta underwent an operation to the head late Tuesday evening. Both Basanta and Sujan have not yet regained consciousness.
This is the third incident in a row within a fortnight that locals in the Valley, as in the Tarai last month, set upon new faces on suspicion of kidnap bids and did them in. In the Tarai the locals had burnt and clubbed 15 persons to death.
*(Corrected)
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