Govt to provide Rs 1 million each to the family of Soti incident; international border to shut till Sept 16

Kathmandu / Aug. 11: Government has decided to compensate the families of the deceased in the infamous Soti incident in West Rukum. While six Dalit youths were killed, several others were left severely injured in the incident.

A meeting of the Council of Ministers on Monday took a decision to provide Rs 1 million each as compensation to family of victims of the incident that took place in West Rukum’s Chaurjahari Municipality-8 Soti, said Minister Minister for Information and Communication Technology Dr Yubraj Khatiwada.

Minister Khatiwada, who is also the government’s spokesperson, said the government will also bear all the medical expenses of the injured persons in the incident.

Nabaraj BK, Ganesh Budha Magar and Sanjib BK from Bheri Municipality-4 in Jajarkot district, Lokendra Sunar and Govinda Shahi of Bheri-11 and Tikaram Nepali from Chaurjahari-1, Rukum were murdered in May earlier this year.

Lal Bahadur Khadka, Madan Shah, Saroj Bhadel, Ashish BK, Sudip Khadka from Bheri-4 , and Bibhag Pun, Mahesh Karki and Indrajung Shahi of Bheri-3 had sustained injuries during the incident. Bhola BC (Bheri-13), Gobinda Sunar (Bheri 11), Sunil Sunar (Rapti Sonari-4, Banke) and Dilli BK (Kumakh-4, Salyan) were also among those injured in the incident.

A committee formed by the Ministry of Home Affairs to probe the Soti incident of West Rukum had concluded that the six Dalit youths who lost their lives in the incident were stoned to death. The committee led by an under-secretary at the MoHA was formed to probe the Soti incident, in which six Dalit youths had died.

The report stated that the victims were attacked with stones, domestic weapons and were baton-charged.

Nabaraj BK, 19, a young man from the Dalit community, was chased to death by locals of Chaurajahari Municipality in West Rukum.The young man and his friends were stoned and chased by the locals until they were swept away by the Bheri River. The boy had gone to his girlfriend’s house to take her. As the boy was from a Dalit community, the girl’s family members and neighbors were against their love.

Nepal’s international border will remain closed until September 16. Anyone breaching the order and entering in Nepal is liable to legal action, Dr Khatiwada said.