Soldiers go on rampage in Kathmandu

Nepal's controversial army became embroiled in a fresh scandal after a midnight raid on a police station and torture of two policemen even as UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan's envoy began consultations in Nepal to discuss how to manage the arms and armies of the government and the Maoists and take the peace negotiations forward.

About 40-50 soldiers stormed the police station in Durbar Marg, an upmarket area in the capital close to the royal palace, around 1.30 a.m. Saturday, intimidated the policemen stationed inside and marched off two cops as well as a man under custody.

The soldiers were from the Bhairabnath Battalion, the most infamous wing of the army known to be running torture camps inside barracks. The raid was in retaliation to one of their colleagues being taken to the police station for questioning.

According to the police authorities, a night patrol headed by Inspector Ram Bahadur K.C. was on its round in Thamel, the tourist hub in the capital, around midnight when it came across two persons under the influence of alcohol, who blocked the road with their car.

One of them was Captain Rowan Bikram Rana and the other a civilian, Dipendra Singh Bista.

When the patrol brought the two men to the police station for questioning, they sent an SOS to their soldier friends, triggering the midnight raid.

The marauding soldiers took the three men inside the Bhairabnath Battalion barracks where they were abused, thrashed, administered electric shock and dunked in filthy water in which the soldiers habitually urinate.

They were released only around 4.00 a.m. after the policemen informed the authorities and lodged a complaint.

The three victims were taken to Bir Hospital in the capital for treatment, private television channel Nepal1 reported.

Since King Gyanendra ascended the throne of Nepal and took up the reins of the army, it became notorious for gross human rights violations, extra-judicial killings and shielding its guilty soldiers and officials.

A succession of governments did not dare to bring the army under control, allowing it to function as it desired.

Even after King Gyanendra was forced to step down and a new multi-party government came into power, it could not take action against the army chief though it suspended the heads of other security divisions for abetting the royal regime.

The latest army attack comes when a UN team is on a nine-day visit to Nepal in answer to a request by the government to assist in managing the arms and armies of the state as well as of the Maoists.

While the Maoists are under mounting pressure to disarm, the government has no plans to disarm the Nepal Army, saying it is a national army bound by discipline and allegiance to the state.

In the past, there have been several incidents of soldiers firing indiscriminately on civilians. Last December a drunken soldier killed 12 people in Nagarkot when he began firing in a fit of pique after a brawl.

Currently, army chief General Pyar Jung Thapa, Colonel Raju Basnet, who headed the Bhairabnath Battalion, and other security officials are under probe by a high-level commission formed to bring to justice the officials responsible for trying to suppress the protests against King Gyanendra's direct rule.

-Indo-Asian News Service

(IANS)

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