Nepal unrest: Several inmates injured as Army fires to thwart another prisonbreak

Amid ongoing prisonbreaks in the country, Nepali Army on Thursday morning foiled a prisonbreak at Ramechhap in the Bagmati province in the country’s east.

The Kathmandu Post reported that Nepali Army opened fire to stop mass breakout from Ramechhap prison in Bagmati province. The prison has more than 300 inmates.

Chief District Officer Shyam Krishna Thapa was quoted as saying that prisoners broke through several internal locks and tried to smash open the main gate before security forces fired.

“Around 12 to 13 inmates were injured after the army opened fire as they reached the gate,” Thapa said.

In related news, prisoners from Nepal’s Jaleshwar jail attempted to enter India through Sitamarhi border in Bihar.

“Following the jailbreak in Nepal’s Jaleshwar, an alert was sounded and 21 people have been detained. All police stations are on alert, and in view of the situation, buses and vehicles are being checked in Sitamarhi,” Amit Ranjan, SP of Sitamarhi, told PTI.

Since Monday, Republica newspaper has reported that more than 7,500 prisoners have escaped from around a dozen jails across Nepal. In one instance, hundreds of juvenile inmates also escaped from a correction home. In multiple instances, jailbreaks were foiled as well, such as at Birgunj where the police and the army resorted to aerial firing of bullets and tear gas to contain the situation when prisoners tried to escape, according to Kantipur newspaper.

Among thousands of prisoners who have been freed or released include former Deputy Prime Minister Rabi Lamichhane and Sanjay ‘Takla’, a former minister sentenced to life in a bomb blast case that killed five persons.