In the wake of growing insecurity and rising incidents of threats, Nepalese industrialists and businessmen have issued a month-long ultimatum to Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal asking him to beef up security or allow them to raise their own industrial security forces.
“We have asked the Prime Minister either to provide security to the businessmen and industrialists within a month or to allow us to set up our own industrial security forces equipped with arms,” Surendra Bir Malakar, president of Nepal Chamber of Commerce said.
A delegation led by Kush Kumar Joshi, president of the Federation of Nepalese Chamber of Commerce and Industries (FNCCI) met Prime Minister Nepal and drew his attention towards the growing insecurity and death threats facing industrialists and the businessmen in Nepal.
In the past one week, business community in Kathmandu received nearly one thousand threat calls from different armed groups, Mr. Malakar said.
“How can we perform our work in such a situation when we are facing mental torture and tension, he said. Either the government should guarantee security to us or we will opt for establishing our own industrial security mechanism and for that the government should enact laws that allows possessing private weapons”, he said.
The third option is that we should hand over the keys of our business establishments and industries to the government.
The demand from businessmen and industrialists' came at a time when the armed gunmen have targeted a number of businessmen, media tycoon and medical professionals in Kathmandu and troubled Terai districts.
On Tuesday, director of Bharatpur Medical College Dr. Nagendra Pampati was attacked by gunmen in the busy centre of Lazimpat, where gunmen shot dead media tycoon and businessman Jamim Shah less than a month ago.
However, Mr. Pampati was unharmed as his driver made quick move as soon as the armed gang coming on a motor cycle opened fire at his vehicle. The police said that investigations are on regarding the incident.
On Monday, gunmen had shut dead media entrepreneur and businessman Arun Singhaniya in Janakpur, near the Indian border. We have been receiving threat calls from different gangs who use mobile phone with Indian or Malaysian sim cards, Mr. Malakar said.
Meanwhile, editors of Nepal's national dailies have issuing a joint statement condemning the killing of Singhaniya, chairman of ‘Janakpur Today’. The dastardly act reveals the heinous face of crime and reflects complete lack of government presence, they said in the statement.
Editor of ‘The Kathmdandu Post’ Akhilesh Upadhyaya, editor of ‘The Himalayan Times’ Ajaybhadra Khanal and editor of ‘Republica Amit Dhakal’ are among those who issued the statement. They have also strongly demanded that the guilty be brought to book and vowed not to surrender press freedom under any threat or intimidation.
The United Nations Office of the High Commissioner of Human Rights (OHCHR) in Nepal has issued a statement asking the government to provide security to journalists.
The businessmen were facing death threats, extortion, intimidation, strike, threat calls, abduction and the like, according to Mr. Malakar.
