By Sudeshna Sarkar, IANS
Kathmandu : Journalists in Nepal began countrywide protests Sunday, enraged at the government attempt to hush up the murder of a peer by Maoist guerrillas nearly a month ago.
Security forces added insult to the injury of the protesting journalists, baton charging them near the prime minister’s office and arresting 14 scribes.
Several journalists taking part in a sit-in as part of nationwide protests were beaten up. At least one protester was admitted to hospital with severe head injuries, media reports said.
Hundreds of journalists marched in protest in the districts as well, demanding information about the fate of Birendra Shah, a journalist with private television station Avenues, who was marched off at gunpoint by Maoists in Bara district in southern Nepal last month.
In the capital, protesters began a sit-in before Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala’s official residence to remind him that he had failed to keep his promise to Shah’s grieving wife Umrawati.
Last week, a tearful Umrawati and her two young children met both Koirala and Maoist Chief Prachanda, and both assured her in public that Shah’s whereabouts would be made public in 72 hours.
Soon after the pledge, Koirala also attended a conference of women journalists, saying his government would ensure that scribes were protected.
The Maoists, on their part, announced they had formed a team to probe the abduction.
While both sides prevaricated, a daily from Birgunj town in south Nepal Sunday graphically reported that Shah had been killed soon after his abduction.
Hands tied, he was marched to the Ratanpuri forest, which in the past became famous as the meditating spot of Nepal’s “Little Buddha”.
There he was beaten up mercilessly till he died.
His killers took off the gold chain he wore and his wallet and buried the body, Prateel daily from Birgunj said.
One of the killers also went to a local bank to exchange some dollars Shah was carrying but left the bank empty-handed when asked to show his passport, the report said.
The Nepal police Sunday admitted they had found a severely decomposed body near Amlekhgunj. Since his family could not identify the body, a DNA test was being done, the police said.
However, a Nepali advocate, Bhimarjun Acharya, claimed last week that the test had already been done and the government was hiding the results.
At first, the Maoists had denied having any hand in the incident though eyewitnesses said the masked abductors were rebel leaders, including the chief of their self-styled people’s government in Bara, Lal Bahadur Chaudhary.
The kidnap caused a furore in parliament with Speaker Subhash Nembang sending a team of parliamentarians to Bara.
The MPs reported that four Maoists were behind Shah’s disappearance and that the police had failed to arrest them even though they were seen in public for several days after the abduction.
The clinching piece of evidence came from one of the rebels, Kundan Foujdar, who admitted his involvement.
Speaking by phone to an FM radio, Foujdar claimed he was calling from Hyderabad city in India where he had gone into hiding after the storm broke.
He also said the Maoist party had ordered Shah’s abduction and he had simply carried out instructions.
Shah’s killing would badly tarnish the images of both the Koirala government and the Maoists.
The case has also been taken up by the International; Federation of Journalist, which sent a letter to Prachanda asking about Shah’s fate.
As the culture of impunity grows stronger in Nepal, killings and abductions are reported daily with the state, failing to bring the perpetrators to justice.
Even as journalists went on the warpath over Shah, more protests erupted in Siraha district in south over the murder of a politician from Koirala’s ruling Nepali Congress party.
Unidentified gunmen abducted Bechan Yadav Saturday night from Lahan town in Siraha district. His body was found Sunday.