Three camps of Beldangi remain tensed on Thursday as the Camp Management Committee (CMC) decided to restrict refugees from going outside the camps demanding arrest of those local youths involved in physically assaulting two refugees of Beldangi-II camp on Tuesday.
According to Beldangi Camp Secretary Dhan Bir Subba, a gang of around six local youths mercilessly attacked Kumar Rai of sector G and Indra Kumar Rai of sector F nearby the camp when they were returning from Damak. Both of them are being treated at the BP Koirala Memorial Hospital, Dharan.
“The situation is such that our people feel insecure to go outside the camp,” Rai told BNS adding,” The authority is not serious towards our demands and we decided to confine the refugees within camps.”
CMC representatives returned hundreds of refugees back to their huts this morning from various junctions of three camps. They have been told to stay inside the camp until the next notice.
Following the clash, the Armed Police Force (APF) arrested a refugee youth for his alleged involvement in the attack.
He was kept in the camp-based safe room for two days and was released on Wednesday.
His family source informed Bhutan News Service that he was innocent, but could recognize of those in the local gangs. However, none of them have been arrested yet.
As CMC restricted refugee labours from moving outside the camp, locals obstructed IOM (International Organization for Migration) vehicles for several hours.
Meanwhile, an all-party meeting that convened at the APF office to find a solution to the problem decided to allow the IOM vehicles to transport refugees to the airport.
“There was a brief discussion. Everyone was of the opinion that IOM vehicles should not be obstructed.We’ll have major discussion at 4 pm,” said Basudev Khanal, BRAIN (Bhutanese Refugees Association of Intellectual Novas) coordinator after the meeting.
Accordingly, four IOM vehicles carrying resettling refugees left for the Bhadrapur Airport at 12:10 pm today.
The next meeting has been called for 4 pm this afternoon.
Reported by Jeetan Subba with inputs from Tulsi Upreti from Beldangi-I and Rohit Kumar Pokhrel from Beldangi-II
