(CEHURDES/IFEX) – “Kantipur” daily – the country’s largest circulation Nepali-language newspaper – reported on 26 October 2006 that a member of the political group Jantantrik Terai Mukti Morcha (JTMM), a splinter group of the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoists), revealed that his group’s president, Jai Krishna Goit, had planned to detonate a bomb at the […]
(CEHURDES/IFEX) – “Kantipur” daily – the country’s largest circulation Nepali-language newspaper – reported on 26 October 2006 that a member of the political group Jantantrik Terai Mukti Morcha (JTMM), a splinter group of the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoists), revealed that his group’s president, Jai Krishna Goit, had planned to detonate a bomb at the newspaper’s regional office, located in Biratnagar in eastern Nepal.
Jyoti Jha, a Morang district coordinator of JTMM who was captured by the Maoists in early October, revealed that Goit had instructed him to carry out the bomb plot because “‘Kantipur’ had not published news of JTMM and was publishing misleading reports.” Jha said he was captured by the Maoists as he was about to execute the plan. He said one reason for bombing the publication was to get publicity for the JTMM – which has continued to carry out violent activities in Terai district (in the southern plain area of Nepal), despite the ceasefire declared by the Maoists.
The Maoists and JTMM have bitter relations and their members regularly clash with each other.
CEHURDES condemns this bomb plot, which would affect the situation of press freedom and jeopardize the public’s right to information.
