(FNJ/IFEX) – On the morning of 12 April 2006, Assistant Sub-Inspector Sailesh Giri and policeman Ram Hari Karki, both in plainclothes, infiltrated a protest gathering of journalists at Bhrikutimandap. The FNJ had organized the peaceful demonstration to protest recent attacks on media persons. Media persons from a large area around the protest venue gathered to […]
(FNJ/IFEX) – On the morning of 12 April 2006, Assistant Sub-Inspector Sailesh Giri and policeman Ram Hari Karki, both in plainclothes, infiltrated a protest gathering of journalists at Bhrikutimandap. The FNJ had organized the peaceful demonstration to protest recent attacks on media persons.
Media persons from a large area around the protest venue gathered to participate in the protest. The infiltrators had come in a van with a licence plate number Ba.2.Cha 7725. They pretended to be journalists and provoked the protestors to further agitate. One of them seized and threw away the wireless phone of a security agent deployed there to control the crowd, following which the agent assailed the crowd with his baton.
Such incidents of government infiltration were witnessed previously, during a rally organized by the Seven Party Alliance (SPA) on 10 April as part of its nationwide democratic movement.
According to a report published in the daily “Kantipur”, plainclothes army personnel and policemen infiltrated that peaceful demonstration held at Kohalpur Bazaar of Banke in the afternoon, secretly carrying explosive objects. Some were recognized by the United Nations Chief for Nepalgunj, Andrew Greger, who asked them to show the objects they were trying to conceal. One of them immediately exhibited a grenade that he was carrying in his pocket, then left the rally to join his unit when he was asked to show the contents of his other pocket.
The army personnel were all from the camp commanded by Major Anirudra Nagarkoti, and were led by Lieutenant Ram Bahadur Karki.
Federation of Nepalese Journalists (FNJ), in its press release, has strongly condemned such infiltrations and has warned not to repeat such incidents in the future.