CHAUTARA, June 29 - Locals of Thulopakhar VDC in Sindhupalchowk district Wednesday brought vehicular movement to a halt at Lamosankhu-Jiri road section demanding that the murderers of Bishal Tamang, a 19 years old schoolboy, be brought to book. Tamang was murdered by Maoists three weeks ago, according to locals.
Locals said they would continue protests if their demands are not met. Angry locals staged the protest after Maoists did not attend a program organized to make public a report prepared by a probe committee investigating Tamang's murder.
Local Maoist leaders have claimed they could not attend the program as they had to attend another program elsewhere. However, villagers said that the Maoist leaders 'fled' to protect their party workers.
After three days of protests, a 13-member probe committee was formed on June 17. There are three Maoists in the committee. All of them were absent in the program. One of the members of the committee expressed ignorance as to why the Maoists did not appear in the program.
Tamang was abducted from a fair in Lishankhu VDC on June 9 and was murdered the next day. His dead body was recovered from a local forest. It was buried.
According to the probe committee report, he was killed by five Maoists. All of them have admitted in written that they killed Tamang.
The protests were stalled after Maoist 'secretary' of Sindhu-Dolakha, Asmita, and 'commissar' of Bethan memorial brigade Ganga Karki promised to take action against the culprits. The duo had even apologized for the incident. However, there has been no official Maoist response to the protest. The villagers have demanded that the culprits be made public in the presence of Maoist central leaders.
