By IANS
Kathmandu : A band of former Maoists Thursday called a two-day shutdown in the Terai plains to protest a local politician’s murder four days ago that had triggered clashes, as villagers started coming across fresh mutilated and burnt corpses and the toll touched 23.
As the toll in the Kapilavastu attacks rose to 23 with dozens still missing from villages and over 2,000 people forced to flee their homes, the Janatantrik Terai Mukti Morcha headed by former senior Maoist leader Jay Krishna Goit called a two-day closure from Saturday to condemn the murder of Abdul Moit Khan.
Khan, an influential politician with strong links both to the palace and Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala’s Nepali Congress party, had led a vigilante group during the direct rule of King Gyanendra that was responsible for the death of at least 12 Maoists.
Though Khan escaped being brought to justice because of the clout he wielded, he was gunned down Sunday in a surprise attack by two motorcycle-borne assailants who are yet to be found.
The killing stoked arson, looting and indiscriminate violence that also spread to neighbouring Rupandehi and Dang districts, assuming sectarian colour.
In Kapilavastu, till Thursday, 23 bodies had been found, including those of women and a 10-year-old boy.
Over 100 vehicles were torched along with nearly 300 houses.
Retaliation attacks resulted in two mosques being set on fire in Butwal town and one more in Dang district.
With 62 days left for a crucial election and a deep political crisis gripping Nepal after the Maoist guerrillas quit the government and pledged to oppose the polls, the security situation continued its downward spiral in the plains.
The bodies of two young men were found in Bara district. Police said the men could not be immediately identified.
They had been shot several times and had their feet tied.
The Goit faction also abducted five people in Terai, including politicians.
Two politicians belonging to Nepali Congress party, one from the Communist Party of Nepal-Unified Marxist Leninist, the second largest party in the coalition government, and two local leaders where abducted from Bishrampur village in Rautahat district, which has been one of the most violence-prone spots in the Terai plains.
Kapilavastu district as well as Butwal continued to remain under curfew.
Richard Bennett, the chief of the Office of the UN Human Rights High Commissioner in Nepal, who was on a tour of the violence-hit districts, was quoted as saying that neither the government nor political parties made an effort to help the victims.
Hundreds of long-distance passengers remained stranded in the region.