Nepal’s Supreme Court has issued a show cause notice against Prime Minister and CPN (Maoist Centre) chair Pushpa Kamal Dahal ‘Prachanda’, asking him to clarify why he should not be booked for insurgency-era killings. It has given the PM 15 days to explain (in person or through a representative) his three-year-old statement that he takes responsibility for the deaths of the 5,000 among the 17,000 people killed during the Maoist insurgency. A single judge bench, however, refused to issue an interim order as demanded by the petitioners who have demanded a criminal investigation against Prachanda. The final hearing will commence when the PM furnishes a written clarification as per the court’s order. The court administration had first rejected the petitions but the court found the decision illogical and allowed the petitions. Meanwhile, the government has forwarded a bill to amend the Enforced Disappearances Enquiry, Truth and Reconciliation Commission Act in Parliament. The bill does not list murder as a serious human rights violation, thereby leaving it a crime fit for amnesty, reports The Kathmandu Post.
