(CEHURDES/IFEX) – On 21 September 2004, security forces raided the home of journalist Lila Raj Khanal in Gauradaha-8, Jhapa district, eastern Nepal. According to family sources, members of the Unified Command Forces – comprised of Royal Nepal Army, Nepal Police and Armed Police Forces officers – entered the journalist’s home at about 4:30 a.m. (local […]
(CEHURDES/IFEX) – On 21 September 2004, security forces raided the home of journalist Lila Raj Khanal in Gauradaha-8, Jhapa district, eastern Nepal. According to family sources, members of the Unified Command Forces – comprised of Royal Nepal Army, Nepal Police and Armed Police Forces officers – entered the journalist’s home at about 4:30 a.m. (local time) and threw praying materials and religious books at his father, Dhruba Khanal. CEHURDES sources report that Unified Command Force agents physically assaulted Khanal’s elderly parents during the raid. Khanal is a reporter for the daily “Spacetime”, as well as a representative of the Federation of Nepalese Journalists (FNJ).
In another incident, journalist Batu Krishna Karki was assaulted by an unidentified group of people on 14 September 2004, in Kathmandu. Karki is editor of the weekly “Rastrabhumi” and is also president of the Nepal Press Union’s Lalitpur section.
In a separate incident, the Communist Party of Nepal (CPN-Maoists) sources claim security forces killed journalist Nand Kumar Thapa on 15 September in Bardunga, Morang district, eastern Nepal. Thapa worked for the weekly “Janadesh”, a mouthpiece for the CPN.
CEHURDES strongly condemns these attacks on journalists and their families and urges all parties in the conflict to respect press freedom, freedom of expression and civil liberties.
