E-Paper
Vigil up as Nepal man shot by NAPF personnel while trying to cross border for medicine
The Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB) and civil police have been alerted on the India- Nepal border in Maharajganj district after personnel 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 Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB) and civil police have been alerted on the India- Nepal border in Maharajganj district after personnel 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 international 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 international border on Wednesday when he was allegedly shot by NAPF personnel near no man’s land. The India-Nepal border was currently sealed due to Covid-19 and only transport vehicles carrying essential goods were permitted to cross the border, he added.
Rajbhar told the jawans that he was going across the border to a chemist at Bahuar Bazar in Maharajganj district to buy medicines for his ailing father, according to the official.
The medicine prescribed by the doctor was not available in the shop near his village in Nepal. The NAPF men told him that border was sealed, and people were not allowed to cross it from either side, the official said.
When Rajbhar insisted, there was an argument between him and the jawans. 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.
NAPF personnel opened fire, hitting Rajbhar and he was rushed to hospital but succumbed to injuries, the official said.
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 chemists in Maharajganj on humanitarian grounds. Covid- 19 had infected people on both sides of the border, he said, adding that people residing in villages across the border in Nepal often visited towns in Uttar Pradesh to purchase medicines or for treatment in hospitals.
The movement of people across the border had been restricted after the Covid pandemic, he said. Often, there was scarcity of medicines in Nepal and patients had to try and get it from shops in Maharajganj or other districts in UP, he said.
To escape detection by SSB and NAPF, they sneak into UP border through agricultural field. Villagers’ clashes with SSB and NAPF were reported in March and April, leading to tension on the border, he added.
The governments of both the countries should permit patients to get treatment or procure medicine on the valid prescription of a doctor, he said.
A Nepal government official who did not wish to be named said, “The Nepal government has constituted a five-member probe team to inquire into the episode and submit a report. The members of the team will visit the bordering village on Friday. They will also hold a meeting with the district administration officers of Maharajganj.”
Caption: File photo of Nepal police deployed on the international border near Sonauli in Maharajganj district of UP.
