Human rights commission seals Shivpuri area suspecting burial

{image-HUMAN RIGHTS01_20122007.jpg news.oneindia.in}Kathmandu, Dec 20: The National Human Rights Commission has sealed off areas near Shivpuri on suspicion that bodies might have been dumped there. NHRC suspects army men of Bhairabnath Battalion had buried human corpses after killing those in their custody, Nepal's news agency quoted the commission as saying.

According to the NHRC member Gauri Pradhan, they have sealed off Jhor Mangal VDC Ward-6 and Thuli Gairi Khola. The NHRC has also written to Home Minister of Nepal Krishna Prasad Sitaula and the Police Headquarters to provide security at the place so that no one could destroy the evidence collected so far, it said.

Sealing the area, the NHRC team raised suspicion that serious crimes were being committed there.

''We found certain suspicious things and we have called the Home Ministry and the Police Headquarters for security at the place,'' Ms Pradhan was quoted by the Himalayan Times as saying.

NHRC members Ms Pradhan and Dr KB Rokaya visited the area along with parliamentary human rights committee members and some human rights activists.

''This was only an initial visit and we will do the needful after roping in experts to find out what exactly is going on,'' Ms Pradhan added.

According to the Kantipur newspaper, pieces of clothes, charred wood, sacks, pieces of unburnt tyre and white plastic, which human rights organisations believe may lead to the truth surrounding the 49 Maoists who were allegedly disappeared by the army in 2003, have been found scattered on the slopes of Alle jungle in Shivapuri National Park, some 20 km north of downtown Kathmandu.

UNI