From The Kathmandu Post: http://www.kantipuronline.com/kolnews.php?&nid=45059 ?After killing mother, they hid a gun...? BY SARASWATI KARKI & LILA BARAL TAGHANDUBBA, Jhapa, July 6 - "I was asleep, and when I was woken by loud voices of soldiers, the first thing I saw was that one of them was hiding something black under a heap of clothes," reminisced Samir Adhikari, 13, son of Rama Adhikari, 38, who was shot dead in cold blood on Sunday by plainclothes security personnel here. "Later, they produced a gun from there and showed it to me saying that my mother sold weapons to Maoists." As he witnessed how security forces turned an innocent person into a Maoist, Samir was still unaware that they had already killed her. "Was your mother not a Maoist? Did she not sell weapons to them?" Thus did security personnel intimidate the little boy, ordering him at random to sit down, then lie down, and then stand up. Fearing that the soldiers might kill his son as well, Devi Prasad Adhikari forced himself into the room. "Son, they killed your mother," said the father. Samir looked out of the window and saw his mother lying dead in a pool of blood. "I pulled my father toward me and told him to keep quiet since the security men were threatening to kill five more persons and I feared they might kill my father as well," said a tearful Samir. The soldiers who killed Rama had also come to the house on June 25 when Devi Prasad was not present. Villagers have accused security personnel of acting on bogus information given them by a girl with the surname Karna. Villagers say the girl, notorious for her "bad character", has been living with security personnel in the barracks. Meanwhile, security officials in the district say that the girl was arrested on suspicion of being a Maoist. The killing of Rama and her "posthumous conversion" into a Maoist has become a topic of discussion among villagers. "Security personnel killed an innocent woman. The family must be compensated and the guilty must be punished," they told a human rights team that reached the incident site. Laxman Prasad Upreti, former VDC chairman, said that security personnel cannot kill someone merely for feeding the Maoists. "Give us security, else all of us will feed Maoists. If we do not feed them, they kill us. If we feed them, security personnel kill us," he expressed his anguish and helplessness. "Sir, what are you saying," were the last words Rama uttered before being shot. "She was killed in front of my eyes," said Devi Prasad. Rama was ordered to get out of the house and then shot. Security personnel then dug up a ditch near the house to bury her. Devi Prasad implored an officer from the District Police Office whom he knew, and got hold of his wife's corpse. "Captain K C made a mistake. Had I been there, this mistake would not have occurred. There is no undoing it. Please put your signature on this report and perform the last rites," Devi Prasad quoted the police officer as saying. On Tuesday, representatives of human rights organizations and advocate Bhim Prasad Poudel issued a joint statement demanding that the guilty be punished and the bereaved family be compensated.