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General Forum: Current 'Affairs' | | Rebels Face Rebellion | |
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TAPAS CHAKRABORTY ( For the Telegraph, KOlkata)
Kapilavastu (Nepal), Feb. 23: His men call him Tiger and the last time he roared, 32 Maoists fell.
That was on February 19 and the Royal Nepal Army, which is yet to penetrate the rural belt in its mission against the Maoist rebels, said the massacre was an expression of “people’s spontaneous anger”.
“ There is a limit to people’s tolerance. They have found themselves at the end of the tether,” said Teg Bahadur Rajoure, who is leading an army drive in Nepalganj, 600 km west of Kathmandu.
The army officer was alluding to years of Maoist attacks on residents of the Terai region where farmers are relatively affluent. The placid countryside hides the face of Maoist terror. But visits to areas along the main roads tell a different tale: razed shops, markets and blackened houses.
Near the seat of power, ministers in the king’s commission hailed the “Kapilavastu counter-attack” by villagers of Bhagwanpur and Sigri, which border India, as a model, while home minister Dan Bahadur Shahi urged villagers to close ranks against the Maoists.
But behind the rhetoric lies the grim story of the rise of a private army which is trying to whip up local anger against the Maoist rebels. And the man behind it is Pritam Pandey, a 42-year-old university graduate and a former member of the Nepali Congress.
For Pritam, the massacre was also sweet revenge. Two years ago, he was abducted by Maoists along with five villagers, shot and dumped in the paddy fields. But Pritam survived and vowed revenge.
Pritam — a Madese, a term for people of Indian origin settled in the Terai — began organising farmers and, with the money collected from them, bought sophisticated weapons. “The ferocity of Maoist attacks, especially targeting the Madese people, provoked anger and I had to use this to defend the people here,” he said.
On February 19, Tiger’s men heard that over 300 rebels had gathered in a nearby village. A 500-strong force launched an attack, killing 32 rebels. The rest retreated, he said.
The incident has made villagers in Bhagwanpur, Sigri, Belbharia and Muksuba more confident. “We will not die like pigs when they fire bullets. We have learnt to retaliate,” said Ratnesh Gupta, a villager.
The Maoists suspect the hand of “Indian elements” in Pritam’s rise. In a leaflet, Bala Thapa, the local Maoist commander, said: “Pritam’s is a reactionary force out to work for the poor. People will take care of him.”
If the Maoists are hated for their ferocity, the villagers too have at times exceeded the limit. Last night, villagers in Sheopur burnt at least 350 houses of hill settlers suspecting them of harbouring Maoists.
Posted by: Malakpet Rowdy At: 25, Feb 2005 12:33:59 PM IST
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