Kathmandu, Sept 15: Home Minister Ram Bahadur Thapa said the government had taken the incident happened at Sitapur of Khajura rural municipality in Banke district seriously.
In his response to the queries raised by main opposition Nepali Congress chief whip and lawmakers in a meeting of the House of Representatives today, the Home Minister said perpetrators in the incident -Nirmal Khatri and Roshan Thakuri-were arrested yesterday afternoon.
Stating that the Nepali Congress (NC) Banke chapter had not informed the local administration about the programme, he said the government was very careful about maintaining peace and security. The government, as he said, has not taken the incident lightly and the Nepal Communist Party had not sent anyone officially to spoil the programme, the Home Minister from the major ruling party NCP said.
"The government is always aware about the safeguarding of democracy and the freedom of expression," he viewed.
It may be noted that a group forced entered the Nepal Red Cross Society Banke's building where the NC Banke was organising the 'National Awareness Campaign' last Thursday in an attempt to spoil the programme. The same group attacked NC Banke President Kiran Koirala and broke her left hand.
In today's Lower House session, NC chief whip Balkrishna Khand accused the police administration of not taking action against the alleged when the victim had already registered the FIR before the police. Stating the government failed to guarantee peace and security for the people, he demanded the Home Minister's clarification over the Banke incident. According to him, the group attacked Koirala and party central representative Bidha Prasad Khanal and it was predetermined.
After Khand, other lawmakers Gagan Kumar Thapa, Sarita Giri, Dilendra Prasad Badu, Puhspa Bhusal, Amresh Kumar Singh, Tejulal Chaudhary, Prakash Snehi, Dila Sangraula, Parbata DC Chaudhary, Heera Gurung, Sanjay Kumar Gautam and Dev Prasad Timalsina accused the government of being insensitive to the Khajura incident and said they would not let the House run until the government owned up the incident.
Then after, Speaker Krishna Bahadur Mahara announced the adjournment of the session for 10 minutes.