Nepal

Kathmandu, August 5

A Chinese national was arrested with four kilograms gold with the help of Airport Customs Office at Tribhuvan International Airport at around 10:30pm last night.

Lin Ning Xi was arrested during routine security check. Xi had hidden the precious yellow metal in a belt kept inside his luggage.

Chief of the Airport Customs Office Gajendra Thakur said instead of wearing the belt around his waist, the suspect had kept it inside his luggage bag, which was a little weird. &Normally, these days smugglers change the outer colour of the precious yellow metal and try different ways to smuggle gold. But this young fellow had simply placed the gold inside the luggage without properly hiding it.&

Four bars of gold weighing one kilogram each were detected by the X-ray machine during security scanning.

Xi, a permanent resident of Beijing, had travelled from Hong Kong and landed in Kathmandu on Dragon Flight KA 104.

Thakur said the 23-year-old had visited Nepal earlier in 2018 and his travel history showed that he had travelled to countries such as the UAE, Ghana and Hong Kong. &These are countries frequently visited by gold smugglers. This has given us enough room to suspect that Xi was actively involved in smuggling gold,& Thakur added.

Meanwhile Deputy Inspector General Sailesh Thapa Chettri said police are working closely with customs officials to find out the Chinese smugglercontact person here in Kathmandu.

Kathmandu District Court has remanded Xi to six days of judicial custody for further investigation.

Of late, the number people involved in gold smuggling via China has been on the rise. A few days ago, on July 25, Dhana Kamal Gurung, a trader of Dharche Rural Municipality, Gorkha, was arrested for allegedly hiding 16 kilogram illegal gold, which was smuggled through Kerung-Rasuwagadi check-point at Nepal-Tibet border.

Police had confiscated 16 gold bars each weighing one kilogram hidden inside a cave. However, police is yet confirm whether Gurung had smuggled the gold inside the country himself or a smuggling racket was involved.

Similarly, in the second week of April, TIA police, had arrested three Chinese nationals with 3.3 kilograms gold concealed in their rectum.

The post Chinese national arrested with four kilograms gold at TIA appeared first on The Himalayan Times.

Kathmandu, August 5

The committee formed to recommend commissioners of the two transitional justice bodies plans to hold discussion with conflict victims& representatives in the next two to three days amid victims& demands that the committee be restructured.

The two mechanisms — Truth and Reconciliation Commission and Commission on Investigation of Enforced Disappeared Persons — have remained vacant since their commissioners retired in April. They have collected more than 63,000 complaints related to conflict-era rights violations.

The committeeSpokesperson Sharmila Karki said although the committee had held formal and informal discussions with the victims, the latter were always complaining that the committee did not listen to them.

&We held a meeting with the victims within a week after the committee was formed. Informal discussions have also been held after that. But they are always complaining that we do not listen to them,& she said. &So we will hold talks with them once again to know what their actual demands are.&

Karki also said the committee was just abiding by the law, which did not allow inclusion of victims in the committee or the two commissions. She said the committee could do nothing about the victims& demand for amendment to the Transitional Justice Act. &They need to pressure the government for act amendment,& she said.

The committee, formed in the last week of March, has been criticised for delaying its work time and again on various pretexts. Victims have charged that the committee is doing nothing but awaiting political consensus on appointment of commissioners in the TRC and CIEDP. The committee has collected 57 applications for the post of chairpersons and members of the commissions.

Concluding that the panel failed to work independently, the victims have demanded that the panel be restructured.

However, Karki said it was taking time to ensure that competent members and commissioners were appointed. She said the panel was in the final stages of adopting criteria for enlisting candidates from outside the list of 57 applicants, and a final list would be made public soon.

The post Selection panel to meet victims appeared first on The Himalayan Times.