I called my mom today to make sure everything was allright in Biratnagar.
My family were okay but the situation around in biratnagar was not okay at all.
Let me start by stating few incidents.
Johrahat is a place about 7-10 Kms north from center of Biratiagar. It is mainly
populated by so called "madheshis" but there are plenty of pahades/nepalese as well. The
madheshis wanted to kick all the pahades out of place but the pahades didin want
to leave the place they had occupied for decades(obviously). There was a huge riot.
Apparantly the people from the both side were equipped with weapons such as
spears and khukuris. One of my uncle, an inspector in police, had to go to control
the situation and he had a narrow escape. His vehicle was badly damaged and three
other policemen with him were burtally killed with spears. My uncle survived but he
sustained an eye injury.
In another incident in place called Karisya, which is about 10kms east of biratnagar,
the madheshis apparantly kicked some families out of their house and burnt their houses.
I am not really surprised with this because most of the people there are totally illiterate
and 95% of the people living there are madheshis. In general the river Singya that is on
the east of biratnagar divides the
nepalese communities from the madheshis. Now the armed group of nepalese guys guard
the river bridge and prevent all the madheshis from entering biratnagar.
Towards the south of Biratnagar is Jogbani(India) and as you might guess there are plenty
of madheshis living right on the border. But lot of nepalese people, live there as well so the
power is equally balanced and hence more violence. The people have been on a killing spree
there. The nepalese living there have roots in Dharan so in one incident about 3-4 trucks full of
armed people from dharan were heading towards Jogbani. But luckily the police intervened
and managed to return them back otherwise it could have been one of the biggest
blood bath in the history of Biratnagar.
Biratnagar is my home town and i love it to the core. I know that the madheshis who
live there are perfectly nice people who work hard and earn their living. Generally
the relations between nepalese community and the madheshi community has been
a harmonial one. But one stroke of madness and things have changed for ever. Whoever
started this tragic streak of violence deserves the greatest punishment ever. After the
maoist problem had somewhat been solved I thought nepalese would get a breathing
space but I am sure that aint gonna happen for some time to come.
I dont know what kind of rights are madheshis asking for. If they want the terai to be
part of india that aint gonna happen unitl all the nepalese living there are killed. If they
want to evict all the nepalese from terai that aint gonna happen until every nepalese
living there is dead. All the nepalese living there are facing exactly the same problems
that the madheshis face. They should understand that Nepal is a messed up place and
it will take some time till every one becomes happy. I dont know what will they gain from
this violence but I know Nepal will loose a lot of lives, the relations between madheshis and
nepalese will be seriously dented for a long time to come. All in all madheshis will loose
more than they will gain and same will happen to nepalese too.
In the clash of few personel interests of the top level people , the people like my uncle
and hundreds of others will have to suffer. I wish a speedy recovery of my uncle and
other injured people and hope that this madness will come to an end soon.
