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| Kathmandu, Monday January 27, 2003 Magh 13, 2059. |
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Armed police chief shot dead
Security agencies in valley on high alert
By Kiran Chapagain
KATHMANDU, Jan 26:Armed Police Force (APF) chief
Krishna Mohan Shrestha along with his wife Nudup Shrestha and bodyguard Surya Regmi were
killed by suspected Maoists early today morning.
All three died on the spot. While Shrestha
bore multiple bullet marks in his temple and face, his wife succumbed to injuries as
bullets pierced her chest. Nudup was a teacher in Lincoln School.
The incident took place at about 7:35 am
while they were on their routine morning walk along Ring Road at Bhanimandal, Lalitpur.
The bodies were taken to the Birendra Police Hospital where Prime Minister Lokendra
Bahadur Chand, his cabinet colleagues, leaders from various political parties including
former prime ministers Girija Prasad Koirala and Sher Bahadur Deuba, government officials
and several private citizens paid homage to the victims of what they term as terrorism.
The bodies of the Shrestha couple were later
taken to their residence where it will be lying in state for a day. The funeral will take
place tomorrow at the Pashupati Aryaghat, following the arrival of their two daughters -
one from India and the other from New Zealand.
The police has arrested a person named
Krishna Hari Sainju, son of Ram Gopal Sainju of Bhaktapur Durbar Square, who is believed
to be one of the three attackers. Sainju was arrested with bullet injuries on his leg from
the scene of the crime, shortly after incident. However, two other assailants including a
woman, all dressed in black, managed to flee from the scene.
Shrestha was the first Inspector General of
Police (IGP) of the 15,000-member APF raised about one-and-half-year ago to combat
insurgents.
Mild mannered and soft-spoken, Shrestha was a
popular figure in the force, commanding respect and admiration in other spheres as well.
Assistant Minister for Women, Children and Social Welfare, Anuradha Koirala, who rushed to
the spot and later to the hospital, bitterly cried, recalling how Shrestha went out of the
way to help those in distress and need.
Shrestha is the first top-ranking official
from the force to have been targeted by the rebels. Earlier, Senior Superintendent of
Police, Parmeshowre Singh Sijapati, died in a Maoist-laid ambush in Dang, nearly
one-and-a-half-year ago.
Within minutes of the murders, a huge crowd
of nearby residents and passers-by gathered at the spot. Splotches of blood were
splattered all over the road.
Though no one has claimed responsibility for
the attack, the government has blamed the Maoist rebels for the killings. Prime Minister
Lokendra Bahadur Chand summoned an emergency cabinet meeting hours after the murders.
Another impromptu meeting of security agency chiefs, chaired by Gen Pyar Jung Thapa, Chief
of the Army Staff (COAS), also took place immediately after the incident. An emergency
meeting of the Security Council was also summoned later.
A Defence Ministry statement blamed the
rebels for the "cowardly and despicable murders."
Following the incident, security has been
beefed up in the capital and security personnel have assumed a state of high alert, at all
exit points from Kathmandu Valley. As news of the killings spread, police put up check
posts along the entry points into Kathmandu district from Lalitpur.
Scores of suspects have been arrested from
the adjacent locality, according to police and eyewitness accounts. Devi Prasad
Chaulagain, a pashmina trader, said that he saw many suspects being picked up and taken
away in seven buses, by security personnel from the adjacent areas.
Police said they recovered 15 empty
cartridges from the scene of the shootout.
Another eyewitness Rajan Thapa, a local
resident, told the security personnel, who arrived at the spot 10 minutes after the
shootout, that he saw two people, dressed in black, fleeing towards Ekantakuna.
Kanchhi Thapa, 65, who was squatting in front
of her house, which faces the scene of the crime, said that she saw a duel between the
men, followed by the shootout. "Then the men collapsed on the ground," she said.
"It is unbecoming of civil society and
deserves condemnation," the cabinet meeting in its decision said. "The murders
have been perpetrated out of their defeated mentality and is nothing more than a criminal
act."
The cabinet also expressed confidence that
the incident would not in the least distract security personnel, working to safeguard the
country and democracy and would in the days to come, remain actively engaged for peace and
security, with still stronger determination.
Prime Minister Chand, in a separate
condolence message, has condemned and denounced the murders. Chand said the death of a
talented security chief was a great loss to the nation.
The Police Headquarters has constituted a
four-member probe team to be led by a deputy inspector general of police, security sources
informed. Additional IGP Sahabir Thapa is expected to replace late Shrestha as the new
IGP. IGP Shrestha’s murder was condemned by most of the political parties in the
country as well as different sections of society as "cowardly and condemnable".
Girija Prasad Koirala, Nepali Congress
President, Madhav Kumar Nepal, General Secretary of Communist Party of Nepal- Unified
Marxist-Leninist (CPN-UML), Sher Bahadur Deuba, NC (Democratic) president, Pashupati
Shamsher JB Rana, Rastriya Prajatantra Party’s chairman and Nepal Sadbhavana Party
univocally condemned the "brutal killing" of Shrestha. Daman Nath Dhungana,
former speaker of House of Representatives and a Human Rights activist, Padma Ratna
Tuladhar, Chairman of Nepal Human Rights Protection, Sudip Pathak, chairman of Human
Rights Organisation of Nepal (HURON), Sindhu Nath Pyakurel, Chairman of Nepal Bar
Association and Malla K Sundar, advisor to HURON, have also condemned the killing as a
gross violation of the Geneva Convention.
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