Trade union leader attacked
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KATHMANDU, AUG 27 - Salikram Jamarkattel, Constituent Assembly member and trade union leader aligned to the UCPN (Maoist), was attacked by unidentified men at Babarmahal on Saturday. The assailants, who used sharp-edged weapons to inflict deep cuts on Jamarkattel’s rear-left section of the head, are on the run. He was immediately rushed to Norvic Hospital, Thapathali, by his aides.
Jamarkattel was returning from the office of All Nepal Trade Union Federation in Parisdanda at around 7:30 pm. He was walking to his rented apartment in Babarmahal when the assailants attacked him. Jamarkattel, who was talking on his mobile phone, fell headlong to the ground.
Jamarkattel was taken operation theatre at around 9:15 pm and is said to be out of danger. “I heard a noise from behind while I was walking. I fell and only later I realised that I had been attacked. I could not ascertain who attacked me or what weapons they used,” Maoist leaders, who talked to Jamarkattel in the hospital, quoted him as saying.
“This is a criminal act and the party has taken it seriously. We have learnt that he is out of danger, which is a matter of relief. The case should be investigated and assailants brought to book,” said Maoist leader Agni Prasad Sapkota.
Metropolitan Police Commissioner Kuber Singh Rana said police have intensified search for the attackers. There was a frenzy in the hospital compound following the incident with Maoist leaders, union members, media persons and police all trying to horn in on the scene. Doctors repeatedly issued warnings to the mass to clear off from the hospital front. Jamarkattel’s assembled supporters also shouted slogans against the attackers.
Jamarkattel, who for the past five years had been serving as leader of the Maoist trade union, was recently removed from the post following growing opposition from the Mohan Baidhya and Baburam Bhattarai faction of the unionists.
UCPN Maoist had recently formed a committee coordinated by Maoist leader and Minister for Information and Communication Post Bahadur Bogati to select the Fifth General Convention Organising Committee following Jamarkattel’s ouster. Jamarkattel, who had frosty relations with rival trade union factions of Baidhya and Bhattarai, was, however, a popular and powerful figure in Maoist ranks.
His opponents had also accused him of acting as de facto trade union leader even after his removal.
Jamarkattel, an elected CA member from Dhading is close to Maoist Chief Pushpa Kamal Dahal—and many consider him the single most imporant person for the surge in leverage of the Maoist trade union.
Posted on: 2011-08-28 09:05
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