Nepal’s Supreme Court on Sunday has ordered the government to cancel the promotion of Army General Toran Jung Bahadur Singh because of his credible involvement in the massacre of 49 detainees when he was in command of the Bhairabnath Brigade.
The court has also ordered government officials to present their answers regarding the question why they knowingly promoted someone nationally and internationally denounced, especially by hundreds of human rights organizations, includingUNOHCHR.
Defense Minister Biddya Bhandari had openly defied national and international pressures not to promote Singh since he is also in a blacklist of the Rayamajhi Probe Commission for crimes against humanity.
Minister Bhandari has time and again stood against the Comprehensive Peace Agreement signed in November 2006. The Agreement is the cornerstone in Nepal’s current peace process following a 10-year Maoist People’s War that toppled the 240-year Shah dynasty.
At present, unconfirmed reports from Indo-Nepal border areas are coming that arms smugglers affiliated with some previously ruling parties have been smuggling in arms as part of preparation for civil war and against the drafting of new constitution.
After Indian Army Chief Deepak Kapur spoke against Nepal’s Comprehensive Peace Agreement stating that Nepal’s rebel troops be dismantled without letting them integrate with the national army as per the accord, Nepalis at grassroots level are worried at the possibility of the renewed war between the progressive forces and the regressive ones.