Nepal: Rights body urges escapees to surrender

KATHMANDU: With the situation in the country gradually returning to normal, Nepal’s security agencies and authorities are now desperate to see its 12,000-odd inmates who escaped from different jails during the protest back in their barracks.

While security agencies were able to nab around 1,500 inmates -- out of the total 13,500 who had fled -- the majority are still missing. What has added to the anxiety of the administration is that the escapees include some notorious criminals, like dreaded gold smuggler Chudamani Upreti , who was lodged in Sundhara Central jail from where around 3,200 inmates escaped on Sept 9.

Staring at an unprecedented internal security problem, officials have appealed to the general population for help in the form of tip-offs. Many have responded, informing police about the whereabouts of an escapee, sometimes nabbing the criminals themselves before handing them over.

On Saturday, the country’s National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) joined in, asking the jailbirds to return and surrender the weapons looted on Sept 9.

Expressing concern, it said that the jailbreaks had caused a sense of fear and insecurity among citizens, many of whom have in turn run away from their homes fearing reprisals.

“The jailbreaks have caused distress among women, children and victims of crime. We urge security agencies to intensify efforts in searching for the fugitives and bring them back to their respective cells,” the rights body said.

Amid the appeals by authorities, Rabi Lamichhane, president of Nepal’s Rashtriya Swatantra Party, returned to the Nakhu prison on Saturday. He was arrested in October last year for his alleged involvement in the Supreme Cooperative fraud case and was lodged in Nakhu prison in Lalitpur, from where he had escaped on Sept 9, citing "security concerns during the violence".

Releasing a public notice, authorities said: "It is urged that the escapees abide by legal procedures and social responsibility by returning voluntarily. Failure to do so would result in their continued status as fugitives along with enforcement of harsher penalties under Prison Act 2022 and other prevailing laws."