UCPN (Maoist) withdraws banda given Teej festival

KATHMANDU, Sept 7: Given the Teej festival, which is popularly known as Haritalika among Hindu women, UCPN (Maoist) party has withdrawn banda shortly after 12 noon on Saturday.



“The banda program imposed in protest of the arrest of our cadre Ram Prasad Adhikari has been called off taking Teej, the festival of women, into consideration,” reads the statement issued by the central party office of the UCPN (Maoist) on Saturday.[break]



The party has stated that it will launch more stringent protest programs if the government keeps on arresting its cadres when the environment is getting conducive for the next Constituent Assembly elections.



In the statement, the party has strongly urged the government to form the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) in order to resolve thorny issues related to the murder cases occurred during the Maoist insurgency.



The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) had sent letters urging the government to undertake an investigation into the incident and bring the guilty to book and provide the compensation to the victim’s family.



The party had called banda following the arrest of its cadre Ram Prasad Adhikari from Dilli Bazaar in the Capital Friday evening.



Nanda Prasad Adhikari and Ganga Maya Adhikai have been staging a fast-unto-death for over a month demanding the arrest of their son Krishna Prasad Adhikari’s slayer. Krishna had been murdered in 2004 allegedly by the then Maoist cadres in Chitwan.

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