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Village draped in fear after torching of family
BIRTAMOD, DEC 03 - Fear runs up and down the spines of the people in Kuti Bazaar of Jhapa district where a group of Indian dacoits burnt alive a family inside their house last Friday night. All the members of the family of Upendra Shah, a goldsmith in the bazaar, perished in the gruesome arson.
The locals who witnessed the terror are deeply depressed and they say that the scenes of the gruesome incident have been haunting their minds.
"As the thatched roof of the double-storied house started burning, the innocent children were shouting for help, waiving their hands from the window ~ ~ of the upper floor," said Leltu Rajbanshi, 60, an eyewitness. "Gradually, the children were engulfed by the raging fire and we were forced to hear their screams. I hadn’t even heard of such a dreadful event in tales. But I was forced to see it," recounted the elderly man.
The dacoits scorched Shah alive along with his wife Fulmati, daughters Nil Kumari and Uma Kumari and son Ganesh inside their own house locked by the bandits.
Upendra’s words, "Uncle, may you live long! I’m dying!" still ring in his ears, according to Rajbanshi. The incident has similar traumatic effects on Kabita Shrestha, another neighbour who is still numb after the incident.
"Upendra’s youngest daughter was my son’s playmate. No articles and belongings of the child could be found. Everybody was reduced to ashes except for two pieces of bones from the fire-ravaged house." Kabita could speak no more about the experience.
The dacoits had first barged into the house of Sudama Shah, Upendra’s next-door neighbour. Her husband and children somehow managed to flee from the house and saved themselves from the dacoits, according to Sudama.
As for herself, she was severely beaten up by the bandits who also substantially damaged her house. The villagers found her in a state of comma lying in the front yard in the morning and it was when she learnt of the ghastly incident of her neighbours. "The devils killed my neighbours by using the kerosene from my house," lamented Sudama.
Following the gory incident, residents have started spending their nights in other villages, away from the bazaar. They are also thinking of migrating to other places, according to Laxmi Rajbanshi, the headmaster at the local Shahid Gangalal Primary School.
Like in other Nepal-India frontiers, people here also kept weapons to fight against the Indian dacoits and the youths patrolled in and around their locality in vigilante groups. Following the insurgency in the country, however, the locals are not allowed to keep any sorts of weapons.
Security persons have seized all sorts of weapons and the youths are helpless to fight the armed dacoits just with sticks, according to headmaster Rajbanshi.
"Unless the government guarantees security in the area or permits its residents to have weapons, the locals will be left with no options but to migrate to some safer places," said the headmaster.Posted on: 2003-12-02 10:47
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