National 7 (Spotlight Weekly)

Bullet In The Head

With a bullet lodged in his head for the past one year, Kiran Yogi, a victim of Maoist conflict, is living in a misery hoping some Good Samaritans would come to his rescue

By SANJAYA DHAKAL

He still remembers that fateful day quite vividly. On Asoj 4 (September 21, 2003), he was chatting with his colleagues at the Nepal Rastriya Secondary School in Dhodari VDC of Bardiya district when a group of youths barged into the room where they were waiting for an afternoon tea.

Yogi : In need of support

The staffs immediately realized that the group of 10-15 youths was that of Maoists. The group then began its inquiry. They complained that the schools of the area never ‘helped’ or ‘donated money’ to them.

The Maoists then asked the teachers to provide 10 percent of the total salary they had received for the past two years as ‘donation’. None of the staffs dared to counter-question them. But Yogi, a local social worker who was also active in Nepali Congress (NC) politics, made a feeble protest and told the Maoists that teachers were not in a position to part with such a hefty amount and requested them to bring it down.

Enraged by his remarks, the Maoists immediately asked whether there was any teacher named Kiran Yogi there. Yogi nodded and told them he was the man. As he was an active social worker and a politically aware person, he was never in their good books. Then the Maoists asked him to accompany them outside. Till then Yogi had no inkling what they were up to.

Yogi was taken a few hundred yards away from the school compound and in a secluded field just along the East-West highway. “Even to that point, I did not know they intended to kill me. I was just preparing to answer whatever questions they would pose,” remembers Yogi.

Instead of asking any question, the youths asked him to kneel down. “That was the point when I realized that they were going to kill me,” said Yogi. A Maoist youth pulled out a gun from behind his back and fired a shot directly into his head. The group then left hurriedly.

Soaked with blood, Yogi cried for help and was later taken to district hospital in Gulariya. Within half an hour of the incident he lost his consciousness completely and slipped into a coma. The doctors there referred him to a better hospital in Nepalgunj. Relatives then immediately took him to Bheri Zonal Hospital in Nepalgunj – the regional headquarters – where he reached in the evening time. There, too, the doctors gave up saying the chances of his survival were almost nil. Concerned family members and friends tried to airlift him to Kathmandu but were told there was no chopper available at that hour. As they were in a race against time, the relatives then took him to Indian city of Lucknow – a couple of hours drive away from Nepalgunj.

In the hospital of Lucknow, Yogi lied unconscious for 19 more days. When he gained consciousness, his backside was severely infected due to bedsore. And the doctors did not risk pulling out the bullet from his skull fearing the worst. After spending over Rs 150,000, Yogi returned to Nepal and subsequently went to Kathmandu with the financial support of his friends and well-wishers where his backside infections were treated. After staying for one and a half months at the Teaching Hospital in Kathmandu he was discharged. Because of the bullet in his head, the left side of his body remains paralyzed. “Doctors have said that physio-therapy could cure the paralysis, but I have no money for the treatment,” said Yogi who talks in feeble tone.

Dr. Iswor Lohani of the Teaching Hospital is supervising his treatment. “Doctors have said that they could extract the bullet out of his head, but it involves a lot of money as well as risk,” said Gehendra Mahara, a relative.

As if the Maoist bullet was not enough, the government refused to extend his job of temporary teacher. A lone bread-winner of his family (he has a wife and two kids to support), Yogi is currently living in a rented room in Kathmandu. “Till now it is the friends who have supported me. Hindu Vidya Peeth School has given scholarship to my son and daughter,” he said. Yogi’s son studies in Class Three and his daughter studies in Kinder Garten.

His repeated requests for help from the government were turned down. In fact, the previous government led by Lokendra Bahadur Chand had decided not to refund money for treatment done in a hospital outside the country.

“At present, financial difficulty is his biggest problem. If some individuals or organizations could help him, his health and his financial situation could be rescued,” said Mahara. Yogi and his friends were also encouraged by a recent news report of an Afghan girl being provided help by a Tokyo-based charity Aid for War Orphans. The Japanese organization is helping the girl by taking her for treatment in Japanese hospital. The girl, too, has a bullet in her head for the past three years. “We hope some organization could similarly help us,” added Mahara. Likewise, Yogi also is fervently hoping that the new government led by Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba would offer him some help.

Currently, Yogi has nowhere to go. His land and house back in Bardiya have already been taken over by the Maoists. n