The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) Wednesday said it was going to launch a probe into the suicide of Prashant, a Maoist leader, in army custody.

In a statement today, the rights watchdog said it was concerned over the suicide of Prashant under suspicious circumstances. Earlier, a number of human rights groups had demanded independent probe into the incident.

The Royal Nepalese Army had said that 27-year-old Prashant, former in-charge of the Valley Coordination Committee of the CPN (Maoist), committed suicide inside his cell by hanging himself with shoelaces on Sunday afternoon.

Meanwhile, the NHRC has condemned the brutal killing of a police inspector by the Maoists during an attack at the Ilaka Police Office in Sankhu, Kathmandu, on Saturday. The rebels had hacked inspector Indra Bahadur Lama to death after taking him under control. Four other policemen were also killed in the attack.

“The NHRC strongly condemns the heinous murder and asks the Maoists not to repeat such acts in future,” the NHRC said in a statement today. The rights commission also said the killing was completely against the Geneva Convention and other international humanitarian laws.