Activist Demands Truth Behind Violence During Recent Protests, Questioning Both Shooting and Parliament Fire

Kathmandu. Activist Tanuja Pandey has stated that the truth behind both the order to open fire during the recent protests in Bhadau and the instigation to burn down Singha Durbar must be revealed. Writing a status on the social media platform X on Friday, she asserted that the public must have the right to make an informed evaluation during elections. According to her, elections without truth are not democracy but merely an organized illusion.

She also urged against engaging in the nonsensical debate of whether it happened 23 days ago or 24 days ago. Activist Pandey stated that Nepali people were killed by the state and by the mob on both days. She added that hiding the questions of truth and accountability and limiting the debate only to dates is a disregard for the pain and lives of the people.

She raised 10 questions, including whether there was any planned role to turn the movement, which began with a commitment to peace, into violence.

• The question of whether there was any planned role to turn the movement, which began with a commitment to peace, into violence must be raised. While claiming the movement was peaceful, how did the clash occur at Maitighar around 9:30 AM? Why were aggressive slogans chanted? And why were those slogans incited?
• When the 'Genji' group officially issued a notice on social media around 11 AM stating, "Infiltration has occurred in the movement, the situation does not look safe, everyone should return home," why did the leaders at the forefront of the movement, those with access to the microphone, not see it? Or did they pretend not to see it? When the risk was clear, whose decision was it to continue advancing the movement?
• Who incited the breaking of the barricades? Why did people who claimed they had no intention of breaking the barricades reach in front of the Parliament? If the objective was peaceful demonstration, who changed that direction?
• What were the then-government and our security agencies looking at while all those incidents were happening?
• Who ordered the shooting at minor siblings who were still in school uniforms?
• Who spread the illusion that "the police will not do anything to students in school uniforms"?
• Who incited the burning of Singha Durbar? How did organized fires erupt across the country in the same manner, at the same time? How was this destruction possible using the same means? When people were inside their homes, shouldn't setting fires from outside be considered "attempt to murder"? Don't the people have the right to know the answers to these questions?
• Seven people died on Bhadau 24 when Bhatbhateni was burned. But to this day, the state has not answered who was killed and how. Why do angry people go to burn Bhatbhateni Super Market? Who, why, and how was that anger diverted?
• The chief of Rastriya Swatantra Party was safely evacuated by the police, but on that same Bhadau 24, 10 detainees were killed by police bullets. Security for some, murder for others—what kind of double standard and hypocrisy is this? If the law must be equal for all, how is it just for the state to shoot detainees, shoot protestors, while providing a safe exit for the powerful? Shouldn't Nepal Police answer this? How can the public trust a state that does not speak the truth?
• By holding back the report of the Karki Commission, whose benefit is being sought in the upcoming election? Isn't this an attempt to weaken the public's decision-making capacity by hiding the truth? Only after the truth about both sides—those who "ordered the shooting" and those who "ordered the burning of Singha Durbar"—comes out should the public have the right to make an informed evaluation during the election. Elections without truth are not democracy but merely an organized illusion. Let's not debate whether it happened 23 days ago or 24 days ago! Nepali people were killed on both days, by the state and by the mob. Hiding the questions of truth and accountability and limiting the debate only to dates is a disregard for the pain and lives of the people.