Popular singer Mohan Bhushal ( Jati Heru Heru...fame) during the picturization of his forthcoming music album Apekshya, Thursday at capital's Babar Mahal Revisited.

Litterateurs urged to work for society

HETAUDA, Feb. 1(RSS)- Senior litterateur Bhawani Ghimire declared open the fifth district convention of Sahitya Sangam here recently.

On the occasion, Ghimire said that the litterateurs should work fearlessly to free the society from existing corruption, exploitation and social anamolies.

Secretary of the District Sahiyta Sangam Keshav Shrestha and treasurer Ramchandra Rijal presented the annual progress report and income and expenditure report respectively.

The district convention was chaired by president of the District Sahitya Sangam R. R. Chaulagain.

The district convention constituted a 11-member district executive committee under the chairmanship of Ramchandra Rijal.

Indrajit Sharma, Rishi K.C., Padma Raj Lamichane and Nimesh Nikhil are vice-president, secretary, joint secretary and treasurer respectively of the new executive committee while Ram Kumar Allen, Ganesh Timilsinha, Ujjwal Chaulagain, Ramsaran Pudasaini, Apsara Sharma and Pramila Bidari are members of the committee.

Quality education : Need of hour

SYANGJA, Feb. 1(RSS)- Registrar of Pokhara University Prakash Man Gubhaju inaugurated the 14th anniversary function of Pioneer’s higher secondary school, a private sector education establishment under the Science and Management Institute, at Waling town on Wednesday.

On the occasion, Gubhaju described quality education as the need of the day.

Lecturer at the Prithvi Narayan Campus Huma Kant Pandey said the educational institutions should strive to make educational reform by mobilising the means and resources at their disposal.

Mayor Bhojraj Aryal of Waling, Deputy Mayor Dilip Pratap Khand, District Development Committee chairman Ram Bahadur Thapa, headmaster Prem Narayan Aryal, and other stressed the need to produce skill manpower that could meet the challenges ahead.

Chairman of the School Management Committee Nilkantha Kafle presided.

Assistance for Dahachowk sought

KATHMANDU, Feb1(RSS): The residents of Dahachowk have started seeking foreign assistance for development of Dahachowk which is important from the tourism point of view.

Member of Kathmandu District Development Committee Namaraj Subedi said that a proposal had been made to the donar agency for development of Dahachowk as no outcome had been recieved from the body concerned.

Mr Subedi said that the four forts built by late His Majesty Prithivinarayan Shah at Ward No. 6 of Dahachowk Village Development Committee in 1814 B.S. while attacking Kirtipur and the cremation site of Kalu Pandey and 400 Gorkhali soldiers are in ruins today.

According to cultural expert Pradip Subedi, the name of Indrajatra festival celebrated by the the resident of Kathmandu valley is derived from the Indradaha of Dahachowk Village Development Committee.

Likewise, a panoramic view of the himalayan ranges, the mountains of Gorkha, Rasuwa and Nuwakot districts as well as the three cities of Kathmandu valley can be seen from Dahachowk.

A proxy search for white heroin powder

Tilak Pokharel

KATHMANDU - Everything has been fixed for the dealing of a kilogram of white heroin powder. There is Rs 5 million inside a briefcase, to be handed over by the buying party. Both parties are ready for dealing of the illegal heroin powder, which is the most expensive of all drugs.

Suddenly, one of the two buyers grabs the hands of the seller, hand-cuffs her and carts her off to the police station. Simultaneously, other five people strolling around the scene also go to the police station.

This is not the climax scene of a Hindi film. Nor it is a fictitious tale. But, it happened when policemen from the Valley Crime Investigation Branch (VCIB) arrested a woman, the first Nepali to be arrested with such a large stash of white heroin powder.

Although the plainclothes policemen were assigned from the VCIB for the detention of the heroin smugglers three and half months ago, the police succeeded in detaining Rukmani Bista, 42, only on January 16.

Superintendent of Police and VCIB Chief Rabindra Pratap Shah had ordered Inspector Manoj KC to carry out the investigation. He had a team of seven, including Dinesh Kharel, Assistant Sub-Inspector at the VCIB.

Initially, Inspector KC employed some regular street-based drug-addicts, by offering them money, to find out if Rukmani, a mother of five, was a professional drug peddler.

Using the drug addicts, the police, disguised as drug-trafficking agents, sent a message to Rukmani saying that they wanted to buy the drug to traffic to Germany. After several attempts, she agreed to sell one kilogram of the white powder to them. "She agreed to sell that amount only after consulting her agent several times," said the Inspector.

She (Rukmani) even took a week or more to make available samples. All the samples were genuine, Inspector KC said.

The police also employed some ordinary Nepali people pretending to be from the German party. "We did not employ real Germans fearing that the information would be leaked, maybe because of potential information gap or something else," Inspector KC told The Kathmandu Post.

After both parties agreed on the deal, next came the selection of the location to exchange the drug with cash. "Since Thamel area was quite secured place for us, we decided on this area for clinching the deal," added Manoj. "But, they chose the Jawalakhel area." Though the Thamel area was picked twice, they refused it at the last moment both times.

"After they started dilly-dallying over the exchange, we threatened to leak information to police about their business," said the police official, acting as a drug trafficking agent. At the same time, the police (pretending to be the buying party) also threatened the dealers saying that the flight was leaving in two days to Germany. Then, Rukmani herself fixed both date (January16) and location (Ekantakuna Chowk, Lalitpur). The time was fixed for 1400 o,clock.

Five plainclothes policemen, possessing weapons and hand-cuffs, were deployed there from 12:00 noon. Posing as passers-by, they were posted there to check out if anyone was loitering around the area. "Rukmani arrived there at the reported time. But she had not brought the heroin. She had come to find if we had brought money or not," said Inspector KC, who was there wearing suit and tie and carried a brief-case containing Rs 5 million.

Rukmani returned with the powder after a short while. "We easily detected the drug, which was wrapped inside a paper," he said. "Then, I signaled to ASI Dinesh to put on hand-cuffs and he did."

"What are you doing? Why are you teasing me?" Inspector KC said quoting Rukmani. "Then, we revealed our identity and she started to weep." The police took her to the VCIB Office by taxi. Currently, the District Police Office, Lalitpur is investigating the case. Divorced, tea shop owner Rukmani has five daughters, two of whom are married and three still living with her. The fate of the three daughters is as yet undecided.

According to the VCIB, this was the biggest amount of white heroin ever confiscated from a Nepali. The price of 1kg of heroin in Nepal stands at around Rs 7.5 million, while the price on the international market tops around Rs 10 million. Before this, only 300 grams had been confiscated in Nepal. "Brown sugar" (a cheaper heroin powder), is widely used by drug-addicts in the Kathmandu Valley. Had Rukmani concluded the deal without police interference, she would now be Rs 50,000 better off.

The major places from where drugs are brought are India, Laos, Burma, Pakistan and Afghanistan. These places are often categorised as the "Golden Triangle" or "Golden Crescent". A person convicted in drug dealing in Nepal is liable for up to 20 years of imprisonment and has to pay a bail up to Rs 2.5 million.