English - Support to Participatory Constitution Building in Nepal ...

The Remake of a StateKapilvastu district on 16 th September 2007 took the lives of more thantwo dozen people. Many people are still unaccounted for and more thanthree thousand people are displaced. This quickly spread to neighbouringdistricts and almost turned into communal and religious conflict. Seriesof killings, bomb blasting in temples and churches, kidnappings, attacks,lootings, extortions, strikes and blockades have created insecurity, fearand helplessness in the country directly affecting development.Figure 2.10 Factors affecting insecurity in societySource: Designed by the authorFor more than one and half year, the Terai region has become increasinglyinsecure and violent particularly after the promulgation of the InterimConstitution that did not address the issue of proportional representationelection system and federal state structure raised by Madhesi people.The Nepal Police at that time had declared eight districts namely Bara,Parsa, Rautahat, Mahottari, Dhanusha, Sarlahi, Siraha and Saptari as'highly sensitive' and other 13 Terai districts namely Jhapa, Morang,Sunsari, Makwanpur, Chitwan, Nawalparasi, Rupandehi, Kapilbastu 6 ,Dang, Banke, Bardiya, Kailali and Kanchanpur districts as 'sensitive' areas.6Though the Nepal Police categorised the Kapilvastu District in second category of high risk area, thekillings and violence erupted in different villages of Kapilvastu district on 16 September 2007. The violencewas erupted once the Abdul Mohit Khan (member of Loktantrik Madhesi Morcha and leader of VillageDefence Committee, which was formed by the then Royal Nepal Army to fight with the UCPN (Maoist)during the time of active war in 2004-2005) was killed by unidentified people. Immediately after thekilling of Mr. Khan, his supporters started to indiscriminately attack people and burn their houses. Morethan two dozen people were killed, many more are still missing and more than five thousand peoplewere displaced. One of the main causes of the Kapilvastu massacre was the arms provided by military toVillage Defence Committee to fight against the rebels which were not returned even after signing of theCPA, despite the repeated urge from human rights activists, researchers and local leaders.31