Himalmedia staff, editors beaten up
Himalayan News Service
Himal magazine’s special correspondent Dambar Krishna Shrestha showing the wounds inflicted by the group headed by president of the All Nepal Hotel and Restaurant Workers’ Union Ramesh Panta in Lalitpur office of Himal on Sunday.
Himal magazine’s special correspondent Dambar Krishna Shrestha showing the wounds inflicted by the group headed by president of the All Nepal Hotel and Restaurant Workers’ Union Ramesh Panta in Lalitpur office of Himal on Sunday.
Kathmandu, December 21:
• Presidents of Maoist-affiliated trade unions led the attack
• Martial arts experts involved: Dixit
Continuing their attacks on the media, Maoists today attacked Himalmedia injuring at least 12 senior journalists and other senior-level employees.
A group of some 50 persons led by president of the Maoist-affiliated All Nepal Hotel and Restaurant Workers’ Union (ANHRWU) Ramesh Panta stormed into the meeting hall of Himalmedia’s Hattiban office at noon.
The group attacked Chief Executive Officer of Himalmedia Ashutosh Tiwari as soon as the Lalitpur chief of Maoist-affiliated All Nepal Communications, Printing and Publication Workers’ Union (ANCPPWU) Ramesh KC identified him.
They also attacked the editor of Nepali Times weekly, Kunda Dixit, executive editor of Him-al Khabarpatrika — a vernacular fortnightly — Kiran Nepal, its senior reporter Dambar Krishna Shrestha, Shambhu Guragain, finance manager Bindira Shakya, Surendra Sharma, Subhash Kumar Das, Karma Lama and Bir Bahadur Tamang. They also vandalised the office and left the scene after 15 minutes of vandalism.
The unions had threatened Himalmedia for writing against the workers in its latest issue. Earlier, they had torched the copies of the news magazine and vandalised its distribution office.
“These people appeared to be martial arts experts. They had military training. One of them could kick a tall person like me in the head,” said Kunda Dixit. Dambar Krishna Shrestha suffered the most while trying to protect Kunda.
“They asked me who I was. When I replied I was a journalist, they said, ‘Oh you’re not a worker but a journalist,’ and beat me up,” Shrestha said.
Bindira Shrestha, the finance manager was hit in the chest. CEO Ashutosh Tiwari’s glasses were broken and was injured in the eye. Surendra Sharma of the administration was also beaten up.
“All of these people are Maoists, and we should stop calling them by any other name,” Kunda said. “They are fully controlled by the party.” None of the people had worked in Himal Khabarpatrika before. Meanwhile, Maoist spokesperson Dinanath Sharma said his party had no policy to attack the media and such incidents should be independently probed and the guilty should be booked. “Such incidents should not be politicised,” he said, maintaining that the incident was the result of internal conflict between the workers and the owners.
Following the attack, a delegation of the members of Parliament visited the Himal office, including Nabindra Raj Joshi, KP Oli, Amrit Bohara and Ishwar Pokhrel. Former CPN-UML general secretary Madhav Kumar Nepal too visited the Himalmedia office following the attack. They said it was not just an attack against Himal, but the whole media and democracy.
“The attacks are simply due to impunity,” Kunda Dixit said. “We are waiting to see if the government had the guts to take action against these criminals. We know the names of at least two of them. They just stormed inside our office, and began to thrash people. They must be punished for that.”
A number of organisations, including political parties, have condemned the Maoist attack on free press and demanded an end to impunity. The Federation of Nepali Journalists, Human Rights Activists, Reporters Club Nepal and The Himalayan Times Chapter of FNJ have condemned the attack.
Chief of the Metropolitan Police Range Lalitpur Kedar Man Singh Bhandari said he visited the spot and the police were searching the two people involved in the attack. He said window-panes were smashed and the partition walls of the board room were vandalised.
President of the Democratic Lawyers Association Upendra Neupane has also condemned the attack on Himalmedia.