Nepal

The landless squatters residing in Bagmati Riverside at Thapathali in Kathmandu protested on Monday, stating that the Kathmandu Metropolitan City (KMC) tried to remove them forcefully and without any alternative. 

At Monday noon, a team of city police reached the settlement with a dozer to remove the unauthorised structures. An encounter ensued between Metropolis police and landless squatters, leading to chaos in Thapathali area for around four and a half hours. 

The landless squatters had been asked in the notice to leave their settlement within 10 days, according to the KMC. The protesting landless squatters chanted slogans against KMC Mayor Balendra Shah. They burnt tyres and pelted stones at the city police. 

Ismita Acharya, one of the landless squatters residing in this settlement for a long time, said, "Are you trying to remove us from here? We do not want to live in the terror of the dozer. If the KMC comes up with an alternative, we will leave this place."

There are 136 houses in this settlement.

According to her, they had been trying to hold talks with Mayor Balendra Shah but to no avail. "And this is how they used security force today," she said. 

Ratna Bahadur Shrestha, 65, has been residing in the settlement for 17 years. The elderly man was busy getting his household goods out. 

"I was at work. I rushed home after I learned about the dozer coming to our settlement to take out my goods," he said. "My grandson was granted an early release from his school to leave this place."

Shrestha, who is originally from Sarlahi, said that he does not have any piece of land in his name. He ranted that the politicians visiting his settlement gave only hallow promises.

KMC spokesperson Nabin Manandhar shared that the KMC was assisting the High-Powered Committee for the Integrated Development of the Bagmati Civilisation. 

According to him, the KMC has supported the drive to remove landless squatters alongside the Bagmati River for the Bagmati Clean-Up campaign.

The KMC had given the landless squatters until November 20 to leave the place, but they had been adamant, according to the KMC.

"We had given them 10 days to vacate the place. After they defied our notice, we went there today. However, we couldn't remove the settlements today," Manandhar said. 

Besides the city police, personnel from the Nepal Police and Armed Police Force were deployed after an encounter between residents of the settlements and the metropolis police.

According to spokesperson Manandhar, 18 city police personnel, including the head of the Metropolitan Police Force Raju Pandey, came under attack when they reached the area to evacuate the slums at the request of the committee. Three persons, including city police Sharmila Bogati, who were seriously injured in the incident, were being treated in the ICU.

KMC demands action against perpetrators

The Kathmandu Metropolitan City has demanded action against perpetrators who attacked the city police in Thapathali on Monday. 

In a statement on Monday, KMC spokesperson Nabin Manandhar has said the metropolis wrote to the Metropolitan Police Complex, Teku in Kathmandu with the names of those who led the attack on the Metropolitan Police personnel with criminal intent and those involved in the incident.

The people, who built the unauthorised structures, armed with sharp weapons, stones, and batons, attacked the city police personnel as they reached the squatter settlement in Thapathali, the metropolis said in the statement.