By Rabi Raj Thapa

Like any political upheavals in the past, there is a growing apprehension that Gen-Z movement may also hit a wall pretty soon. Many Gen-Z youths have already lost their lives; many others may lose hope soon and come to the streets more ferociously. It is also amazing to see so many organic and cosmetic Gen-Z mushrooming day by day. But the most alarming is that the government is moving too comfortably at a snail’s pace.

On October 28 Chairman of the Investigation Commission, Justice Gauri Bahadur Karki, firmly indicated that only the September 8 demonstration was a genuine Gen-Z demonstration where government security forces unduly responded with excessive and disproportionate use of force. He also claimed that the mobs and riots of September 9 were planned and orchestrated criminal acts amounting to serious crime of arson, loot, and lynching that caused intentional destruction and devastation of public and private properties.

Assessing all incidents and occurrences of September 8 and 9, everything looks terribly subversive and consistorial. On September 8, security forces were too aggressive and surprisingly heavily armed with semi-automatic weapons and with excessive ammunition to respond to uniformed, unarmed Gen-Z youths. Whose only demand ranged from corruption control, creation of employment and good governance. But more surprisingly, those police personnel didn’t raise a finger to stop unruly mobs and rioters when they attacked police stations, lynched them and robbed their uniforms, 1,200 plus semi-automatic guns with more than 100,000 live ammunition.

It had taken more than five years for the Maoists to loot and collect that much amount of government arms and ammunition during their ten-year armed conflict. However, the government was sensible and smart enough to declare an emergency when the Maoists assassinated Armed Police I.G. Krishna Mohan Shrestha and looted arms and ammunition from the Royal Nepali Army barrack in Dang.

Despite rumors of demoralized Nepal police, they say they have recovered more than 50 percent or 400 looted weapons which is good and reassuring. But it must be remembered that, with the remaining 600 hundred criminals and anti-nationalist elements can cause havoc and even fail the government in no time.

Those missing weapons are not toys to play around with. Such semi-automatic weapons are seldom useful for pastimes like shooting birds or hunting wild animals. That is why the prime minister and home minister must, without any delay, give top-most priority to recover and disarm any element who have possessed these weapons and ammunition as quickly as possible.

If the weapons are possessed by cross-border arm-traders or smugglers, it can jeopardize Nepal’s foreign and diplomatic relationship with its neighbors. If it reaches the hands of anti-national elements within Nepal, they can surely bring catastrophe to the public and private lives and properties alike.

If toys attract kids, ornament naturally attracts exhibitionists. In the same way, guns and firearms naturally attract criminals, extremists, and terrorists. If these weapons reach Chhattisgarh, Kashmir, of Manipur and Nagaland, Nepal government will find it hard to make any excuses to its neighbors. On the other hand, Nepal can never forget the hardship of disarming the Khampa armed combatants from Nepal’s northern border in 1974. Nepal can be most vulnerable if these weapons are used to intimidate and spoil the elections, or used by the extremist elements who are talking of violent armed revolt within the country itself.

Therefore, the most prudent and urgent action the government must initiate is to urge the people to return government firearms as soon as possible. Secondly, the government must issue a strong warning to anyone found with ga overnment weapon to face severe consequences.

To summarize, the situation is grave, government must wake up from its sleepwalk as soon as possible.

(The writer is the former AIG of the Armed Police Force.)