Vigil up after Nepal man shot by NAFP while trying to cross border for medicine
LUCKNOW: The Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB) and civil police have been alerted on the India- Nepal border in Maharajganj district after jawans of the Nepal Armed Police Force (NAPF) allegedly shot dead a Nepalese man near the border in the Himalayan nation when he was trying to cross over to the Indian side to buy medicine that was not available in his village. The incident led to angry villagers in Nepal protesting near the border.
Superintendent of police (Maharajganj) Pradeep Gupta inspected the border and held meetings with SSB and district police officials to review the situation. “To maintain law and order on the international border, a meeting will be held with NAPF officials,” he said.
A Maharajganj district official said Avinash Rajbhar, 30, resident of Katawaha village in Nepal’s Nawalparasi district, was trying to cross the border on Wednesday when he was allegedly shot by NAPF jawans near no man’s land. The India-Nepal border was currently sealed due to Covid-19, he added. Rajbhar told the jawans that he was going across the border to a chemist at Bahuar Bazar in Maharajganj to buy medicines for his ailing father, according to the official.
The medicine was not available near his village in Nepal. The jawans told him that the border was sealed, the official said. When Rajbhar insisted, there was an argument. Soon, local villagers arrived at the spot, opposing the NAPF’s stance and this led to a tussle between the jawans and the villagers, the official said. A jawan opened fire, hitting Rajbhar and he was rushed to hospital but died, the official said.
A Nepal government official said, “The Nepal government has constituted a five-member probe team to inquire into the episode and submit a report. The team will visit the bordering village on Friday. They will also hold a meeting with the district administration officers of Maharajganj.” India-Nepal Friendship Society president Anil Kumar Gupta said the society had sent a letter to the Union home ministry as well as the Nepal government to permit people from Nepal to procure life-saving medicines from Maharajganj.