Gongabu Riot Exposes Security Lapses

Everyone was taken aback to watch videos on social media showing young people vandalising shopping malls and looting mobile sets, chargers, earphones and other devices from some shops at Gongabu of Kathmandu on last Monday (February 13). A riotous mob was also seen torching police vans and vandalising an ambulance. 

The undesirable incident took place when a demonstration was organised by some transport workers’ associations at Gongabu New Bus Park area. The Nepal Transport Independent Workers’ Organisation, Nepal Transport Workers’ Association and All Nepal Transport Workers’ Association jointly had announced different protest programmes, including a transport strike in the Kathmandu Valley for the next day (February 14).

The situation turned violent as soon as the protesters set two traffic police vans on fire and began pelting bricks and stones at the police personnel who were on duty there. However, the police seemed to have taken restraint to ‘prevent possible untoward incidences and loss of property.’ However, the police personnel arrested some individuals on charge of involvement in burning down vehicles, vandalising shopping malls and looting gadgets. With the announcement of the strike, the operation of public vehicles in the Kathmandu Valley came to a halt, causing inconveniences to commuters. 

Sudden eruption

The transport workers also blocked the roads at Balaju, Machhapokhari and Gongabu areas after having parked their vehicles in the middle of the roads. Besides, they burnt tyres, creating a tense situation throughout the day.  The sudden eruption of the violent riot and its involvement in unfortunate activities was really serious and dreadful incident. All this clearly hints at security lapses. The transport workers took that move in order to pile pressure on the government to meet their demands. 

They also accused the owners of Lhotse Multipurpose (P) Limited and some others of intimidating them. The company’s management had tried to stop the infuriated transport workers from staging a protest inside the Gongabu Bus Park. The KMC has awarded a contract to the company to operate the New Bus Park for 45 years since 1999. 

The transport workers’ associations also blamed the traffic police of charging fines illegally, suspending drivers’ licenses, and taking hefty amounts of money on the pretext of pollution of tests of vehicles. Another concern raised by them was associated with the KMC’s fresh notice regarding the parking of vehicles. The local government had already announced that it would not allow long- and medium-route public vehicles to park in open spaces outside the New Bus Park at Gongabu in order to minimise traffic jams. Recently, the traffic police came up with more stringent rules and increased the penalty amounts and other charges in order to check the increasing incidences of violation of traffic rules. This has caused hardships to drivers.  

In view of the adverse impact of the transport strike on the lives of people, the government appealed to the concerned transport workers’ associations to sit for dialogue in order to resolve the problem. The representatives of the government and the agitating groups reached an agreement after holding talks the next morning. As per the deal, the transport workers’ associations called off the strike while the government promised to take action against those involved in assaulting transport workers and probe into the suspected irregularities in Lhotse Multipurpose (P) Ltd. The two sides also reached an agreement to get the taskforce in place to deal with the rest of issues permanently.  

But the shop owners have said that they have incurred a loss worth millions of rupees due to vandalisation and burgling. They have also sought compensations from the government as the security agencies were successful in providing security to the shops. The government has vowed to bring all those involved in such acts to book at the earliest possible. 

Though only very few persons were arrested initially, the police administration has now intensified its search for those responsible for arson and ransacking. As of Saturday, as many as 40 persons have been in police net. Of them, 29 have been charged with vandalism while the remaining 11 have accused of looting mobile sets and other electronic goods. 

The police force is confident that it will be able to round up some more individuals soon because it has identified them. Most of those involved in such crimes are believed to be vehicle drivers, helpers, students, and workers working with different hotels and restaurants. Kathmandu had witnessed almost similar riot in August 2004 when protesters resorted to destructive activities such as vandalising offices of manpower agencies. The violent mob created havoc after 12 Nepali migrant workers were killed in Iraq.    

Hostile scenario

No doubt, the riot at Gongabu happened since the police failed to properly calculate the possible hostile scenario. What was worrying was that no prompt action was taken by the police even when the agitation became unruly. The next reason was that the security personnel deployed there were hesitant to take any tough action against the mob considering the fact that the stirring transport workers were affiliated to political parties, especially the governing ones. The leadership of the Metropolitan Police Circle Balaju might have expected instructions from the Nepal Police Headquarters to handle the situation. But it did not get any concrete order. 

The political leadership as well as the security bodies must take this incident as a reminder and step up measures accordingly to tackle such security challenges. The incident has really sent a negative message about the capacity of the security wings in preventing and controlling such a mob-driven act. The security bodies must remain alert against any likely security threat and do the needful.  

(Dahal is a deputy executive editor of this daily.)