Maoist detainees take visiting NHRC members under control for 5 hrs
It was high drama at Nakkhu Jail in Lalitpur Thursday afternoon as Maoist leaders and cadres detained there took a visiting team of National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) under control for nearly five hours, accusing them of assisting the erstwhile royal regime.
The Maoist detainees kept NHRC members Sudeep Pathak, Gokul Pokhrel, Ram Dayal Rakesh and administrative official Achyut Acharya inside the jailhouse for nearly five hours, it is learnt. The detainees insisted that the commission “worked at the behest of the royal regime” and supplied information related to the Maoists to the army.
The commission failed to investigate into widespread involuntary disappearances and did nothing substantial to pressure the previous government to disclose the whereabouts of disappeared persons, according to the Maoists.
They also asked why the NHRC had failed to prepare a report similar to that of the UN’s Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights-Nepal that revealed the army’s involvement in extra-judicial detention and torture of over four dozen people.
The NHRC members assured the detained Maoists that the commission had been working on a report regarding involuntary disappearances and that
the report would come out soon, it is learnt.
NHRC members could not be contacted for comment but reports quoted Pathak as claming that no such incident took place inside Nakkhu Jail during the visit.
Some three dozen Maoists are kept in Nakkhu Jail. Some of the detained Maoist leaders including central committee members Matrika Yadav and Suresh Ale Magar were released few weeks earlier.
The government has said all detained Maoists will be released gradually. nepalnews.com mk June 01 06
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