LOGIN DASHBOARD

    The Wire

    Features

    4 MIN READ

    The battle for Mahendra Highway

    Bhola Paswan, November 23, 2015, Kathmandu

    The battle for Mahendra Highway

      Share this article

    In Saptari, four Madhesi protesters are killed by the police within 24 hours

    (The Record)

    When the latest rounds of talks between the government and the Madhesi parties five days ago failed like many others, the protesting Madhesi parties decided to capture the Mahendra Highway (also called the East-West Highway) in addition to the key border transits. Their goal was to bring the buses and trucks escorted by the security forces to a halt. The police responded with deadly violence. Between the evening of November 21 and 22, they killed four protesters and left scores injured.

    I live in Kanchanpur in Saptari district. On November 21 I left my house at six in the morning to meet the education minister, who was speaking to journalists in Bardibas, Mahottari. All along the way, the roads looked deserted. In Lahan, youth were burning tires on the street.

    The boys from Chinnamasta. Image: Bhola Paswan

    By 6 p.m. I was back in Saptari district. I met these four Dalit youth, each carrying a stick, on the road in Rupani. They belong to the Musahar community. The boy in the middle with the backpack is Ram Bilas Sada. He lives in Chinnamasta, a border village 30 kilometers away. He was carrying warm clothes for the night. The Madhesi parties had called on the villagers to occupy the streets and donate twenty rupees and a kilo of rice from each household, saying the protests would carry on for a long time. Their slogan was “rajmarg bharu”—fill the highway.

    Ram Bilas told me that about 50 youth from his village had come to protest. Later that day two protesters would die, one of them a Dalit man.

    On the streets, Dalits feel equal. Image: Bhola Paswan

    Around eight, I saw a man welcoming the protesters arriving in tractors, announcing that this would be a decisive movement. Some others were cooking for the protesters. The cook said they were preparing food for about 3,000 people. Unlike in the outlying villages of the Madhes, Dalits and non-Dalits eat together in the streets. Here Dalits feel equal to all. The large number of Dalits in these protests did not surprise me at all.

    Protesters wanted to set fire to the ambulance for smuggling petrol. Image: Bhola Paswan

    By nine, I was back in my home in Kanchanpur, Saptari. I saw protesters stop an ambulance on its way to Janakpur. Instead of a patient, it was carrying 500 liters of petrol. The driver fled the scene as soon as the vehicle was stopped. The protesters wanted to burn the ambulance for smuggling petrol, but Anuj Yadav, a coordinator of the Morcha, stopped them. Yadav lived nearby. Several protesters became angry and threw rocks at Yadav’s house. In the end, the protesters seized the jerry cans, poured the petrol out on the street, and lit it. The cover photo shows the resulting blaze.

    Around 10 p.m., the security forces tried to clear the roads by forcing the protesters off the road. The protesters responded to police laathis by throwing stones. Soon the police opened fire on the protesters in several locations in Saptari.

    The mother of Nageswor Yadav, holding her son. Image: Srawan Dev

    The mother of Nageswor Yadav holds the body of her dead son at the Gajendra Narayan Singh hospital in Rajbiraj, the district headquarters of Saptari, while Yadav’s brother looks on. Nageswor had come from a village 10 kilometers away to join the protest. The next day, police entered the hospital and assaulted the workers there.

    The spot where Birendra Ram died. Image: Bhola Paswan

    Another protester, Birendra Ram, was killed in Bhardah.

    A curfew was declared by the district administration at one the morning. In the morning, irate protesters burned a police post in Rupani. At around 10 a.m., police and protesters clashed once again. Clashes also occurred in Rajbiraj and other locations. By evening, two more had died from police bullets.

    Children with bullets they collected. Image: Bhola Paswan

    I was in Bhardah in the morning, and found some kids on the street collecting bullets. The black one is a rubber bullet, one said.

    Police bullets. Image: Bhola Paswan
    Rupani in the morning. Image: Bhola Paswan
    Broken glass covers the road. Image: Bhola Paswan

    About a 10 kilometer stretch of the road between Kanchanpur and Bhardah is strewn with broken glass to prevent traffic from moving.

    There were no protests in Barmajiya, but security forces caused significant damage around the village. They vandalized at least one paan pasal, street lights, the kitchens of small vendors, and assaulted several Madhesi civilians.

    The bridge is damaged but still standing. Image: Bhola Paswan

    Angry protesters broke parts of a bridge in Barmijhiya, near the camp of Dantakali Battalion of the Armed Police Force. They thought I was a police spy and tried to seize my camera. Two trucks full of Armed Police arrived at the scene. After a brief confrontation, the protesters dispersed. Similar scenes were played out in Rupani where they burned a police post, and in Kanchanpur, Rajbiraj, and Bhardah, with tragic consequences. The protesters are undeterred and are assembling along Mahendra Highway in the thousands.

    Cover photo: Protesters destroy smuggled petrol. Bhola Paswan



    author bio photo

    Bhola Paswan  Bhola Paswan is a senior reporter with The Record.



    Comments

    Get the best of

    the Record

    Previous Next

    YOU MAY ALSO LIKE

    Opinions

    Perspectives

    4 min read

    Dousing the flames in the Far West

    Ashishpradhan - September 2, 2015

    Centralization of power by Kathmandu and a history of discrimination are at the root of recent violence

    COVID19

    Features

    10 min read

    Lessons from Nepal’s trade performance during the Covid-19 pandemic

    Ram Narayan Shrestha - January 15, 2021

    To get on the path to sustained economic recovery, Nepal will need to develop trade mechanisms that have been re-calibrated to meet the needs of the changed global context

    COVID19

    Features

    3 min read

    A man returning home on foot dies in desperation instead

    The Record - April 17, 2020

    Nepal’s first Covid19 death was not caused by the coronavirus

    Features

    4 min read

    Anti-corruption bill allows legal immunity to continue for Army, judges

    Bhadra Sharma - June 23, 2020

    A new amendment to the CIAA bill focuses on the business community but spares state bodies

    Features

    COVID19

    5 min read

    Swindled sugarcane farmers stage protests in the Capital amidst Covid crisis

    The Record - December 13, 2020

    After suffering injustice for years, the farmers have finally descended on Kathmandu to press their demands

    COVID19

    News

    3 min read

    Covid19 Roundup, 28 May: Covid cases pass 1,000 with the highest daily rise

    The Record - May 28, 2020

    A daily summary of Covid19-related developments that matter

    News

    2 min read

    Police charge at Dalit protestors in Janakpur

    Abha Lal - July 5, 2020

    The state’s heavy-handed response to Dalit demands

    Explainers

    3 min read

    Education under lockdown

    Manish Thapa - April 26, 2020

    Is e-learning the way forward?

    • About
    • Contributors
    • Jobs
    • Contact

    CONNECT WITH US

    © Copyright the Record | All Rights Reserved | Privacy Policy