(RSF/IFEX) – RSF has condemned the kidnapping of respected investigative reporter JB Pun Magar, of the bimonthly magazine “Himal Khabarpatrika”. Magar was abducted by Maoist rebels on 9 March 2005, in the Kapilbastu district, southwest of Kathmandu. The organisation called on the Communist Party of Nepal (CPN-Maoist) to free Magar, recalling that, in September 2004, […]
(RSF/IFEX) – RSF has condemned the kidnapping of respected investigative reporter JB Pun Magar, of the bimonthly magazine “Himal Khabarpatrika”. Magar was abducted by Maoist rebels on 9 March 2005, in the Kapilbastu district, southwest of Kathmandu.
The organisation called on the Communist Party of Nepal (CPN-Maoist) to free Magar, recalling that, in September 2004, Maoist leader Krishna Bahadur Mahara ordered his rebel troops to release all journalists they were holding.
The CPN-Maoists are currently holding two other journalists, Radio Nepal host Dhana Bahadur Rokka Magar, who was kidnapped by rebels in western Nepal in August 2002, and Kul Bahadur Malla, the “Karnali Sandesh” newspaper’s correspondent in western Nepal, who was kidnapped in June 2003. The CPN-Maoists leader, Comrade Prachanda, is on RSF’s worldwide list of predators of press freedom.
Since 20 February 2005, Kapilbastu district has been the scene of violent clashes between Maoist groups and militias supported by the government’s security forces.
JB Pun Magar had recently written an investigative report entitled, “Giving the children a chance to fight”, which detailed the recruitment of child soldiers by Maoists rebels. He was also responsible for exposing the torching of more than 600 houses in this region by anti-Maoist militia. In response to the torching, the Maoists murdered 10 people whom they accused of being “enemies of the people.”
“He is a professional, objective and fair journalist who has undertaken some of the toughest reporting jobs,” said “Himal Khabarpatrika” editor-in-chief Rajendra Dahal, adding, “It is regrettable that the Maoists have kidnapped him precisely at the moment when the government is mistreating the press.”
A graduate of the New Delhi school of journalism, Magar was detained and roughed up by security forces in November 2004 while investigating an anti-Maoist watchdog group.
In a separate incident, Kedar Chauhan, editor of the local weekly “Rashtriya Samacharpatra” and a reporter for the regional daily “Darshan”, was injured by a bomb which Maoists had planted under the body of a man they had just shot in Rajghat, in the eastern district of Morang. Chauhan, who had gone to the scene to take photos and obtain information, has been hospitalised and is in stable condition.
