At a press meet on Thursday, Poudel said he had to resign from the editor´s post a month ago and left the district for the same reason. After giving up the job, he shifted to his home district Chitwan last month.[break]
According to him, Pandey threatened to abduct him along with his family and kill him.
"Pandey met me on February 14 and said that no one could do anything even after media entrepreneur Jamim Shah was shot dead. You may meet the same fate," Poudel quoted Pandey as saying. Poudel said a group of seven Maoist cadres had also manhandled him.
He said he chose to quit the job due to the worries of his family members. He said Pandey targetted him after his reporting on financial embezzlement involving the Maoist party.
In a statement distributed to journalists, Poudel has appealed to the Federation of Nepali Journalists, Editors´ Society Nepal, human rights organizations and the civil society members to work for his safety.
Poudel, who himself claims to be a Maoist sympathizer, was put in army custody for two months, jailed for three months and was disappeared for three months during the Maoist insurgency.
Pandey, who is also a family relative of Poudel, however, accused the latter of trying to vilify his image with an intention to take revenge against him due to differences over family affairs.
"He owed some money to me. I just asked him to pay the money. His accusation of issuing death threat by me is entirely baseless," Pandey said.
Meanwhile, our correspondent from Lahan, reported that Young Communist League cadres prohibited reporters from covering a function addressed by Maoist vice-chairman Dr Baburam Bhattarai. The reporters had reached the venue upon the invitation of the organizer Mithila State Committee of the Maoists.
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