WFN pressrelease August 2, 2008, Kathmandu, Nepal                           [What you can do now!]

Police personnel have arrested 92 women protestors at two locations in Kathmandu.  The protestors had organized a rally demanding the arrest and punishment of the murderer of Laxmi Bohara of Kanchanpur   The protestors also demanded that the  perpetrator  provide compensation to the concerned side and that the police and government  guarantee law and order in the state.

During two months following the murder of Laxmi Bohara ( 6th June 2008)  twenty four (24) women have been killed and/or raped by the husband and family and remain free without concern by the authorities for what they have done.  They have not been arrested. They are threatening the people who speak out about the atrocities they are committing.

The police obstructed the protestors at 11:20 AM in front of the Birendra International Conference Center ,  New Baneshwor.  The protestors were attempting to demonstrate their frustration by leaving their upper bodies uncovered.  As a result,  16 women demonstrators were arrested and savagely beaten. Fourteen (14) women were severely  injured.

Due to the beatings by the police, the hands of Sabita Tamang and Durga Upreti are swollen and chunks of hair were torn from Asha Tamang’s head. Other women protestors were dragged and crushed by the police resulting enormous wounds on their bodies.

 Renu Sharma, President, and Kamala Upreti, Secretary General, of the Women’s Foundation, have been arrested and kept in the Police custody at Tinkune, Kathmandu. Immediately after the arrest of Sharma and Upreti, other 16 women including Harka Magar of the Women’s Foundation were arrested and are being held  in the police post at Singhadarbar, Kathmandu.

On the following morning, the police interrupted women attempting to demonstrate at Maitighar Mandala, where women have been fasting as part of the protest for three weeks. Currently, the police have arrested over 50 women including Renu Raj Bhandari, the president of the Women’s Rehabilitation Centre and Geeta Neupane,  program officer of the Women’s Foundation.  Bhandari ande Neupane have been brutally beaten and were dragged thru the streets to the Mahendra Police Club.. From the beating of the police, Bimala B.K and Shanti Chaudhari have become senseless and Rima B.K. and Buddhisagar B.K. have been taken for the medical treatment in  Bir Hospital at Kathmandu. Neupane has reported about more than two dozens women seriously injured.

After the beating murder of Laxmi Bohara of Dhangadhi by her own husband, women throughout Nepal have been demanding action against such incidents.  Women demonstrators have gathered on the streets,  leaving their work and children in the home.  In the countryside they have left the fields where,  during this monsoon season, they should be spending more time planting rice. Women from Saptari, Siraha, Udayapur, Bara, Kailali, Kavrepalanchok, Dang and Kathmandu have been undergoing the relay fasting and are forming revolutionary committees to fight against all sorts of violence against women during the past 22 days.

The Women’s Foundation extremely decries the activity of the democratic government of crushing and torturing the women involving in the peaceful demonstration.

Again we demand for the immediate release of the arrested women and punish the perpetrators. We demand for the formation of a committee to find the facts of the murders and subsequent violence against the women.

Renu Sharma
The President of Women’s Foundation, Nepal

What you can do Now!

Source: The Women's Foundation of Nepal

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