BARA, Nov 13 - Asserting that the pen exhumed along with the body of slain journalist Birendra Sah was "precious", the Federation of Nepalese Journalists (FNJ) has stated its refusal to sell it.

On Friday, a businessman from the capital had expressed a desire to the Post to buy the pen for Rs 10, 000 or even more as a way of honoring the late journalist. Reacting to the news, the FNJ on Monday refused to trade Sah's pen for money. "Though we could not save Sah's life, we have obtained a pen that is too precious for us to sell," FNJ president Bishnu Nisthuri told the Post, "The FNJ won't sell the pen at any price."

Nisthuri also added that FNJ has already taken consent from Sah's family to keep and cherish the pen. "This pen is also a lively testimony of painful memories," Nisthuri said, adding, "We don't want to devalue it through an auction." A group of local Maoist cadres had slain journalist Sah hours after abducting him from Umjan bazaar in Bara district on the afternoon of 5th October. Police had found and exhumed Sah's dead body from a forest area near Dumarwana VDC-7 on Thursday evening 35 days after his death. They had found a citizenship certificate, a press identity card and a pen tucked inside Sah's breast pocket.

Bishnu Bhandari, proprietor of Tapari Café in Lokanthali of Bhaktapur and also a lawyer by profession had contacted a Post reporter on Thursday to express his wish to buy the pen. However, Bhandari on Monday said he had no intention of degrading the pen's worth even though he could not purchase it.

"I only wanted to offer my respect to the pen by buying it," Bhandari said. During the whole episode, there has been no reaction from Sah's bereaved family regarding the pen.

Meanwhile, the Bara chapter of Press Chautari has stated work on publishing a compilation comprising Sah's biography, news reports and other work titled "Samachar Sangalo" (News Collection) in the near future to commemorate the late journalist.