Volatile Tarai: Lax security breeding crime in Bara

BARA, JAN 05 -

The spate of violence in Bara shows no sign of subsiding, with one after another gruesome murder and incidents of shoot-out terrorising the district bordering India for the last few months. 

Only on Wednesday, an unidentified man shot dead one Aftaf Alam Ansari in the broad daylight at Jitpur Bhawanipur VDC-3. On October 3, CPN-UML election candidate Mohammad Alam was shot at in Lipanimal VDC. Alam was brought to TU Teaching Hospital in Kathmandu for treatment but died after seven days, on Octoer 10. 

Police records show there were four incidents of murder and abduction in the district in the past three months alone. Although the district is rated as one of the “most violent” places in terms of number of criminal incidents recorded, the security arrangement is said to be very weak and police is “woefully ill-equipped to respond to the level of need in the district,” according to studies carried out by various NGOs. At 2000:1, the district has one of the worst civilian-police ratios in the country. Kathmandu has 560:1, while the national average is 400:1.

Businessman and the locals in Bara say the security situation has worsened in the district lately, with the police failing to monitor the increased movement of Indian criminals along the porous Nepal-India border.

“The district is becoming a safe haven for Indian criminals,” lamented Binod Sah, the chairman of Bara Chamber of Commerce and Industry. “Local people are living in constant fear due to increased criminal activities.” Mostly, businessmen and politicians are at greater risk as Indian criminals often look for chances to abduct and demand ransom. 

Chairman of Civil Society Sukha Prasad Chaudhary said that the locals have been incurring heavy loss of property and human lives each month due to weak security situation.

“As the security situation and the investigation process are both very weak, the incidents of criminal activities are on the rise,” local teacher Hasta Lama said. 

When asked, Chief District Officer Dinesh Bhattarai merely said that the government has not been able to provide adequate security due to lack of manpower and resources. “I have written to the centre, asking for manpower and resources to beef up security here,” he said. Separate security teams of Nepal Police and Armed Police Force in plainclothes are said to have been deployed in the district. There are 39 police units in the district, including the district police office and six Area Police Offices, in addition to an APF battalion of around 700 personnel. 

The police posts are, however, severely under-staffed and lack even basic logistics, including vehicle, building and other equipment. Pathalaiya Police Post and Jitpur Area Police Office, for example, lack even the basic telephone facility. 

Chairman of Simara Chamber of Commerce and Industry Resham Tiwari said that local people are finding it hard to inform police of criminal incidents due to lack of telephone services in the police posts. 

He said their repeated requests to install the phone lines have fallen on deaf ear.