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Nepal Aggrieved by the Recent Act of Terror

Amit Pyakurel - 9/9/2007

It was a gloomy Sunday evening (September 2, 2007), when we were shocked and grieved to witness the inhumanely horrible bomb blasts in the capital Kathmandu, the very heart of the nation, that has, as yet, claimed the lives of two blameless students of a college and a woman, and even those who managed to survive would bear the tragic brunt of this incident for their lifetime as some of them have been seriously injured or handicapped with their limbs or legs cut-off. Though we had seen number of casualties at the time of the insurgency in the past, this is the first of its kind when such an act of terror has been perpetrated in the country at entirely the public places, deliberately to kill the innocent bystanders, the atrocious act that can never justify the criminals "intents" nor is the crime forgivable in any respect. The incident has upset the optimism so far we've been able to congregate by foreseeing a peaceful, stable, and prosperous future of Nepal through the lens of the widely preferred CA polls in coming November.

Just in the backdrop of a new dawn through a about-to-be-made new constitution, as we have begun to amass hopes in our hearts, many of those that are agonizingly tainted by the violence and grief perpetuated by the decade-long insurgency, the incident has glaringly sensitized us as there are still some elements swiveling around and blithely on their role to tarnish the hope of steady peace and harmony in the country.

It's ponderable that recently why some prominent media houses of Nepal seem not so considerate or willing to steadily highlight this extremely sensitive and ominous issue, as the issue needs to be emphasized and discussed to create a moral public pressure to the government until the real culprits are identified and punished. Our way of impunity and general plus governmental tendency to forget several such killings and victimization of the innocents in the past has given a latitude to perpetrators to sustain their confidence while committing such heinous acts of terror out of their ill-intentions. Talking, putting pressure, or even protesting the incident like this shouldn't cease and we shouldn't subside our calling for a stern action against the culprits, if to discourage such inhuman elements in our society.

We thought the dark days of merciless violence and killings has now been over after the accord between the Maoists and the seven parties. But we were wrong. Unfortunately, we've still seen some elements who are ostensibly against the renovation of state mechanism for a long term peace and stability through the proposed polls. In the midst of our optimism for a widespread reform in our politics, some agonizing instances of violence and killings in Terai have still continued. Besides Terai, this latest ordeal right in the capital city has added an utter unease to our slowly healing hearts. It's vividly clear that the perpetrators had deliberately attempted to victimize the innocents merely to attest their "influence" and create havoc to disrupt the polls. How inhumane and senseless it sounds!

Propositions may emerge that the government should listen to the plights in Terai (as it's heard that the perpetrators claim to "represent" the Terai agitation) subsequent to this incident. However, whatsoever justification of this sort of inhuman brutality concerning the plight of the Terai residents is ironically incoherent. Odious, cowardice, and nonsensical activities as such would easily remind us the act of terrorists in other parts of the globe who cold-bloodedly kill innocents simply to make themselves listened to. And not to forget the vicious killing of twelve innocent Nepali workers by the terrorists in Iraq. We called them terrorists. So, what else could we call the perpetrators of this latest viciousness in our own homeland?

Killing of civilians, knowingly, to fulfill any vested political interest is unforgivable. But what makes us feel utterly uncomfortable is the unfortunate fact that the government has been incompetent to punish many such crimes against humanity since a significant time in the past. The government has so far failed to punish the severe crimes that took place during the insurgency by recognizing some particular war culprits from both the state and the Maoists, even if such heinous acts were "unintentional" according to the policy of the rebels and the state. And it's even more unfortunate that some brutalities as such have continued by some newly emerged violent outfits, even after the widely accepted peace accord.

One horrific reminder of such inhuman act, after the insurgency officially ended, is the Gaur carnage. Series of such events, including the recent one, resemble that some inhuman ("political"?) elements have acknowledged that conducting violence and targeting helpless civilians could raise their "influence," making the authorities listen to them, moreover, without being accountable on what they did. If the government continue to give impunity to the criminals as such and fail to curb such ruthless behavior by appropriate actions, the culprits' way of victimizing innocents as their bargaining tool would sadly continue.

Meanwhile, let's acknowledge the plights of the Terai residents and their peaceful protests demanding a fair share in the national privileges. But what can we draw from the ever rigid violent groups there, who claim to bear "genuine" demands of the Madhesis, by merely killing other innocent countrymen? At this vulnerable juncture even all the prominent political factions have compromised their individual causes for a superior advantage of the country. On the contrary, the strategies like giving communal color to the genuine discontents in Terai and the "movements" that corroborate violence and individual killings other than political tackling makes us utterly hard to discern that it represents or interests the discriminated Terai residents.

Whatsoever "political motive" behind these killings has no rationale, as it's only a pure act of terror that deserves merely condemnation and punishment. More than the incident has attempted to vandalize the peace and hopeful political mood recently beginning to thrive in the country, it has created a collective grief and hatred among all the Nepalese, besides conferring intolerable pain to the victims and their close ones.

Any group who proclaims itself as a "fighter for liberty," if bears a sole agenda to bestow grief to other fellow innocent citizens, simply to pressurize the authority to make it listen to them, would shrink amid the common abhorrence of the citizens, be it from Pahad, Himal, or Terai, all of whom have wholeheartedly hoped for a New Nepal by adhering to peace and harmony, not to the senseless violence or murder of innocents. This collective sentiment of peace and harmony should remain intact though if someone tries to rupture it by attempting to spread antagonism through futile violence.

Especially in the current susceptibility of the situation, when any political blunder or irresponsibility could fetter the peace process, any group, if truly entail to voice for the underprivileged, would resort to meaningful dialogues, or else express their dissents peacefully, in political terms, but not resort to anything that possess criminal instincts or barbarity against the civilians. So it would be greatly important for the government to distinguish between the authentic dissents of the people out of their real plights and some sheer criminal outfits, before arranging anything to make the prior days and occurrence of the CA polls peaceful and more conducive.