KATHMANDU – The government has formed a committee to hold talks with agitating Tharu groups who have been staging protests with various demands including release of Resham Chaudhary who has been serving jail term for his involvement in 2015’s Tikapur carnage.
Organizing a press meet on Monday, Minister for Communication and Information Technology Parbat Gurung said that the government formed a three-member committee led by Minister for Home Affairs Ram Bahadur Thapa ‘Badal’ to hold dialogue with agitating Tharu groups.
Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli’s foreign affairs advisor Dr Rajan Bhattarai and CPN (UML) Bhagwati Chaudhary are other members of the committee.
Tharu Kalyankari Sabha and Tharuhat-Tharuwan Joint Struggle Committee, among other organizations are staging a sit-in at Maitighar Mandala from last Sunday with various demands including the release of Tharu leader Chaudhary.
Chaudhary has been serving jail term in Dillibazar prison after the Kailali District Court in March in 2019 handed down a life sentence to 11 people including him for their connection in Kailali carnage of 2015.
Though Tharu leader Chaudhary won a seat for House of Representatives in 2017 from Rastriya Janata Party that later merged with Samajwadi Nepal to become Janata Samajwadi Party, he was sworn in as the lawmaker only in 2019. However, he was taken back to the prison immediately after the swearing-in ceremony.
Janata Samajwadi Party along with other Tharu and Madhesi groups have been demanding the release of Chaudhary who is considered to have a connection in the 2015’s Tikapur carnage in which Nepal Police SSP Laxman Neupane along with seven people were killed in a violent clash between Tharu protesters and police.
