PHA-Exchange> 'Encounter".

[Mathura P Shrestha]

 Summary Report of the investigation of HR Organizations (several) with the
involvement of a representative from National Human Rights Commission:

Kanchha Dangol along with four other men of Saraswoti Village of Kathmandu
district was arrested by army personnel without warrant or charges on Friday
15 March 2002. There whereabouts were unknown. However on Monday, 18 March
Kanchha Dongol was alleged to be 'dead on encounter'. The team observed the
body of the Kanchha Dongal at the Maharajgunj TU Teaching Hospital in the
presence of the NHRC member on 20 March and found:

1. Th cloth was stained with blood, tear, and mud,
2. Multiple contusions all over the body,
3. Multiple stab like injuries over the legs bellow the knees,
4. Perforated injury on the middle of lower part of the chest,
5. three punctured wounds on the back of the body,
6. Through and through perforated injury in the skull over the temporal
regions,
7. Ligature mark like injury over the neck.

Eye witness in the Saraswoti Village confirmed their arrest by the army
personnel after cordoning off the village on 15 March. The villagers also
reported Army exercise with firing in the Bhutkhel forest nearby on Monday
at about 7 PM. No one was allowed to enter the forest from the evening. HR
members suspects fake encounter after the arrest. The bullet wound may be
postmortem.