By IANS
Kathmandu : An Indian folk artist was gunned down early Sunday in a frontier village of Nepal during a folk play performance.
Phani Lal Yadav, a 35-year-old folk artist from Bihar’s Madhubani district, was shot in Baseriya village in Saptari, one of the most violent districts in Nepal in recent times where in the past one month at least 20 people have been killed by armed groups.
Yadav, according to media reports was walking towards the makeshift stage to play his role in the folk drama, when unidentified militants killed him at around 2.30 a.m. Folk plays are performed throughout the night in the Nepal villagers.
The news of the murder comes even as Informal Sector Services, Nepal’s biggest NGO, said besides 20 killings, Saptari had experienced over 100 abductions and more than four dozen families were forced to flee their homes.
Besides two armed bands of former Maoists, more than a dozen armed gangs have risen in the Terai, unleashing a reign of terror.
The spiralling lawlessness in the plains forced the government to postpone a critical election in June and this month and made over 600 civil servants resign en masse.