Nepal’s Maoist guarantee security to Dailekh journos

KATHMANDU: Nepal’s ruling UCPN Maoist has asserted to provide security to all journalist based in north western district- Dailekh. A meeting of the party’s senior leaders held in the capital on Saturday decided to provide security to all Dailekh based journalist and urged them to return back home without harbouring any fear.

The party’s statement comes at a time when dozens of Dailekh based journalist have fled from their homes citing security threats from the activists of UCPN Maoist and CPN Maoist.

Confrontation between the both Maoist cadres and journalist had intensified in the district and across the nation following the both party’s denial to prosecute the murderes of Dailekh based journalist Dekendra Thapa.

Dekendra Thapa was murdered in the district during the armed insurgency by Maoist cadres and militias in 2004. Though some of the accused have confessed their crime and sought punishment for it, both Maoists parties and the Maoist Prime Minister Baburam Bhattarai had ordered security agencies and the district attorney’s office for not prosecuting the accused.
However journalist and human rights bodies in the district and across the nation had taken to streets slamming the government for promoting impunity and guarding murders in the name of Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA).

The confrontation between journalist and the both Maosit party cadres escalated in the recent days, media reports had claimed that youth cadres of both parties from across the nation had poured in Dailekh to silence journalist.

Sensing threat to their lives more then two dozens journalist had left for Kathmandu on Wednesday night to save their life.

Various journalist and media bodies had urged the government for providing security to the journos. Reading out the party’s decision, spokesman Agni Sapkota ridiculed the journalists hinting that the journalist protests in Dailekh and across the nation were politicised and not neutral.