Nepal: Expect the Unexpected

I was waiting for the office bus at 8AM. I noticed some crowd at the Narayangopal chowk, a 5 minutes walk from my home. Immediately smokes were coming out of burning tires. Almost 10/15 tires were burning. I asked few people, enjoying the scene there, for the cause. They had no answer. We, colleagues from ICIMOD, somehow managed to get Jamal but of no use. Roads were blocked at several junctions by Maoists. They were saying that blockages will get opened at 10 AM. We were happy that they kept their promise. Traffic was normal after 10.

We were seeking the reasons for what happened and approached several people. Some said that a drunk police cut the hand of maoist cadre, some explained that this was to pressurize the government to finalize the talk soon, some said that police misbehaved to the public, but it was obvious that there has to do something with the police. Even the story on eKantipur.com says that the police misbehaved. Whatever, this is definitely not going in the right direction and we are and will be the victims anyhow.


[Thanks to my Nokia 6600 mobile camera. It does come handy at times.]