Police arrest 37 professionals; raid leaders’ residence

April 5, 2006
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Police have taken into custody 37 professionals including journalists, lawyers and professors on Wednesday morning as they were taking out a peaceful rally in defiance of prohibitory orders from New Baneshwore of Kathmandu.

Those arrested include president of Federation of Nepalese Journalists Bishnu Nisthuri, general secretary Mahendra Bista, Chairman of Nepal Bar Association Sambhu Thapa among others.

According to Federation of Nepalese Journalists (FNJ), 13 journalists, 13 lawyers, 5 professors, 3 doctors, 2 film artists and a civil movement activist were arrested from the peaceful protest rally organized by Professional Alliance for Peace and Democracy (PAPAD).

Gopal Thapaliya, President of SAFMA Nepal, who was injured during the protest programme, is undergoing treatment at Kathmandu Model Hospital, Bagbazaar.

Local authorities in Kathmandu and Lalitpur districts on Tuesday issued prohibitory orders, barring public assemblies and rallies within Ring Road area from Wednesday.

Meanwhile, in a bid to foil the general strike of seven political parties the government has started to raid the houses and arrest leaders of major political parties.

According to Nepali Congress (Democratic), police without any arrest warrant entered the houses of various leaders of the party early morning today and arrested at least 14 leaders of the party.

Among the arrested are party general secretary Bimalendra Nidhi and central members Dr Minendra Rizal, Manmohan Bhattarai and Indra Bahadur Gurung. Other arrested are Arun Singh Rathor, Dhurba Adhikari, Damodar Khadka, Chakra Thakuri, Sabuj Krishna Bania, NSU general secretary Kiran Poudel, NSU joint general secretary Kalyan Gurung, Manju Khand, Sudarshan Acharya and Bishnu Adhikari.

Police also arrested at least 22 leaders of the CPN-UML. According to the party, the arrested leaders include Shuvas Chandra Nemwang, Ram Chandra Jha, Keshav Badal, Bhim Rawal, Gopal Shakya and Raghu Pant. nepalnews.com pb Apr 05 06