The incident began with Koirala, an old acquaintance, ranging up repeatedly Sunday night and asking me to come over to Traffic Chowk. He said there was a small matter to settle.[break]
It was already 10 p.m. I was preparing to go to bed. I told him I couldn´t come as it was very late. But he kept on ringing up and I went to the location as I had known him for a long time. I went by motorbike from my residence at Sansari Maisthan to Traffic Chowk. I parked the bike in front of the Traffic Police Office.
I then saw YF cadre Rai, and asked him where Koirala was. Koirala appeared from behind the shutter of a nearby house. He told me we needed to get to a nearby location. Then, abduction-style, he forced me to mount a motorcycle sandwiched between him and Rai, who took the motorcycle to a place near Sagarmatha Party Palace to the west of the District Education Office (DEO).
Till then, I had not even imagined that they would do what they did to me, as we were such old acquaintances. From Sagarmatha Party Palace, the motorcycle took us to toward the west until we reached a place near Koirala´s residence. Koirala got off the motorcycle and said, “You keep going. It´s very close from here. I will come.”
Rai rode me on to a blacktopped road near a garden and stopped the bike. He put his arm around me and took me to a dark place. By then, I was scared. I took out my cell phone and tried to call the police. But both my cell phones were seized. Sensing danger, I ran. But I could only run up to the DEO where I tipped over and fell. It was then that four to five men got hold of me and handed me over to Rai. I was taken to a place close to the bus park. A big gang was waiting there.
Local villagers raised their voice, “What is happening?”
But they were told to shut up and lights were switched off. The village was soon engulfed in darkness.
The group of five to six including Rai thrashed me indiscriminately, kicking and punching and also using bamboo sticks, bricks and whatever else they could lay their hands on. All of them were inebriated and kept chiding me for writing news unfavourable to one Parshu Ram dai and thus seeking to be an accomplice of Abhishek Giri.
I tried my best to safeguard my face and head but I was already losing consciousness. I vividly remember Koirala calling out to Rai from time to time and instructing him to finish me off right there.
The group started to discuss about taking me to Parshu Ram´s place after thrashing me severely and finishing me off there. I managed to take advantage of their lax attention and fled toward Traffic Chowk. I found a police patrol there and thus survived. They had apparently planned to kill me.
Parshu Ram Basnet had been threatening me for reporting on the attack on Avishek Giri, a Biratnagar resident and a convict serving a murder sentence, that took place while Giri was being taken to Morang District Court for hearings on Wednesday.
Basnet had advised me to think seriously before writing anything against him, when I was at the UML Morang District Office in the course of doing some reporting Sunday afternoon. While thrashing me, the assailants also kept saying that I had yet to get to know the real Parshu Ram.
(Based on Dhakal´s account as narrated to Amar Khadka from a bed at Nobel Hospital, Biratnagar)
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