Well-wishers and colleagues including St. Xavier School alumni have started campaign for the release of Dorje Gurung, a Nepali national working as a school teacher in Doha, who was arrested on charges of defamation of Islam few days earlier following a complaint from his students.

Dorje Gurung
While the Nepali embassy in Qatar has started diplomatic over the case, former students of St. Xavier School, Lalitpur, have launched an online campaign – through Facebook and a separate website (https://www.change.org/petitions/government-of-qatar-release-dorje-gurung) – with a petition for his release.

“Based on reports of what transpired on the week of April 22, 2013, the charges brought against Mr Gurung do not seem to reflect what transpired in the Qatar Academy. There is growing international attention to his case, and those monitoring the developments fervently hope that due process will be followed, and that Qatar will uphold its international reputation of being a tolerant and welcoming country,” the online petition read.

“Given the facts of this case and Mr Gurung’s long standing professional credentials, those of us who are following his case hope that justice will be done, and Mr Gurung will be promptly released,” it added.

Gurung, a lower secondary chemistry teacher at Qatar Academy in Doha, was arrested based on the complaint of a couple of students after he reacted to their bad behavior. He has denied the charges saying that he did not make any comments on religion, reports quoting his colleagues said.

In the wake of controversy, he was removed from his job on April 28, two months before the formal expiry of his two-year contract with the academy.

Gurung has been out of Nepal for the last 24 years. Earlier, he taught in schools in the USA, Australia and the UK. Nepalnews.com