On January 25, at around 5:50 pm, a battalion of around 80 Armed Police Force and Nepal Police personnel entered the two camps of the Mukkumlung Protection Struggle Committee in Ballu Danda, Taplejung, and attacked the protestors shouting, “Aren’t you the ones trying to stop the cable car project?” According to Shree Linkhim, coordinator of the Mukkumlung Protection Struggle Committee, they were making dinner preparations when they were attacked. The Armed Police Force chased the protestors and fired live bullets at them.
Twenty-year-old Sagun Lawoti was shot in the chest, Yam Bahadur Limbu was shot in the thigh, Dharman Palgunwa has a fractured shoulder, and Mangal Lawoti a head injury. They are all undergoing treatment at the Teaching Hospital in Kathmandu. Activists shared photos showing live ammunition casings, which are illegal and constitute a grave violation of human rights. The security forces also ransacked nearby homes and shops, taking items like Red Bull without payment, said Shree Linkhim. After the police attack, protestors called for an indefinite strike on the Mechi Highway from Charali in Jhapa to Taplejung and the Tamor corridor along the Mid-hill highway.
The Mukkumlung Protection Struggle Committee has been protesting a planned cable car to be built in Taplejung up to the Pathibhara Temple since last year. The area’s indigenous Limbus argue that the cable car will harm their deeply held religious and spiritual beliefs and cause widespread destruction to the environment.
Yogesh Bhattarai, a former minister and UML Member of Parliament from Taplejung district, called a press meeting and said that the Detailed Project Report (DPR) and Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) showed no adverse effects on culture and the environment. However, lawyer Sanjay Adhikari and his team at the Prakash Mani Academy for Public Interest Law contend that an EIA was never carried out for the cable car. Instead, the government greenlit the construction based on just an Initial Environmental Evaluation (IEE), which is not as comprehensive as an EIA. Adhikari has attempted to access the IEE via the National Information Commission and the public’s Right to Information (RTI). However, the government has been unwilling to release the IEE and the DPR to the public.
To bring more attention to the protest, Ek Theatre Group, in collaboration with Chulachuli Theatre Group, has been putting on a play titled “Mukkumlung” at Mandala Theatre in New Baneshwor from January 17 to February 9. The play highlights the rift that the proposed cable car has caused within the Limbu community and focuses on the Kirat Mundhum, a religious oral tradition that attests to the sacredness of the Mukkumlung-Pathibhara hill, the site of the proposed cable car.
The development of large-scale infrastructure like the cable car can certainly be complicated. Even Limbus are divided among those who support the project and those who oppose it. But what is abundantly clear is the abuse of state power. The attack by state security forces on a peaceful protest has intensified hostilities in Taplejung, with many describing the mood as similar to the conflict years. The cable car is not a state-led project; businessman Chandra Dhakal’s IME Group is constructing it. The government should have been an arbitrator between the conflicting parties, but by mobilizing security forces to beat up protestors, the KP Sharma Oli administration has shown that it is squarely on the side of corporate interests.
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