Kathmandu(IANS) : As condemnation started pouring in from home and abroad over the killing of a journalist by Maoist guerrillas, Nepal’s top rights body released a report saying killings were continuing unabated despite a truce.
Though the rebels signed a peace pact with the new government last year and ended their decade-old civil war, the nation’s hope for peace has been blasted by unabated killings by the state, rebels as well as other armed groups, the National Human Rights Commission said.
In a report on the state of human rights released Tuesday, the commission said at least 115 people were killed between November, when the pace agreement was signed, and July.
According to the report, an ethnic group from the Terai plains that has been emerging as one of the most powerful regional blocs has been responsible for the maximum killings.
The Madhesi Janadhikar Forum, that recently signed an agreement with the Girija Prasad Koirala government — which agreed to withdraw cases against its leaders — killed 30 people, the rights body said.
The Forum recently registered as a political party with the Election Commission and is poised to take part in the stalled election, in which it is expected to do well in the southern plains.
The report indicates that most of the killings took place in the Terai, with two bands of former Maoists responsible for the second-largest number of killings.
The Janatantrik Mukti Morcha, led by former top Maoist leader in the plains, Jay Krishna Goit, killed 11 people while its breakaway faction headed by Jwala Singh killed nine.
Security forces killed 10 while the Maoists were responsible for nine deaths.
At least 15 people died in blasts with no one claiming responsibility while 19 died due to unidentified causes.
The report also included an instance of sectarian violence in Kapilavastu in September.
Violence erupted in the southwest district after the murder of a powerful landlord triggered retaliatory attacks, including large-scale arson and looting.
Though the independent media put the toll at around 30, the rights body claimed 14 deaths.
Besides the Forum and different splinters of the Morcha, new armed groups have been unleashing terror in the Terai.
The rights report said two of them — the Cobra Group and the Terai Bagis — had killed one each.
However, the toll could be higher in the nine months with dozens of complaints about abductions and disappearances.
The rights body received over 720 complaints regarding human rights violations, of which 141 were about abductions and disappearances.
The report said though killings by Maoists had gone down, the human rights situation continued to be grim due to atrocities, abductions, assaults and extortion.
In many of these cases, the Maoists’ sister concern, the Young Communist League, was involved, it said.
The government repeatedly failed to bring the guilty to justice, the commission said, showing that neither side was serious about implementing the peace accord.