Nepal arrests 5 ministers, Army Chief suspended

KATHMANDU: In a dramatic turn of events, Nepal’s new government Friday began bringing to justice ministers in King Gyanendra’s cabinet, ordering the arrest of five of them for abetting the unconstitutional royal regime, violating human rights and misusing the state exchequer.

Former home minister Kamal Thapa, foreign minister Ramesh Nath Pandey and information and communications minister Shrish Shumsher Rana, who was also the spokesman of the royal regime, were the first to be arrested in the afternoon following the recommendations of the five-member Rayamahji Commission, headed by former Supreme Court judge Krishna Jung Rayamahji.

Arrest warrants were also issued to former local development minister Tanka Dhakal, who was information and communications minister before Rana, and assistant health minister Nikshe Shumsher Rana, who is also King Gyanendra’s brother-in-law.

The arrests came as a high-level judicial commission set up this week to bring to justice the royalist ministers, bureaucrats and security officials responsible for trying to brutally suppress the anti-king protests last month and causing the death of 21 people recommended the arrest of former ministers and suspension of four national security chiefs.

People had been clamouring for the arrest of royalist ministers, especially Thapa and Rana, who played the biggest public role in trying to repress the anti-king protests.

The commission has also asked PM GP Koirala to suspend the chief of the Royal Nepalese Army, Gen Pyar Jung Thapa, and four other top officials for their role in the attacks on unarmed protesters, enforcing curfew and mass arrests nationwide illegally.