At a time when the Indian security forces are risking their lives to rescue as many people as they can, there are reports of Nepali men, who come to Uttarakhand to earn a living as labourers and porters attacking and looting people and even molesting girls when sought their help.
Talking to The Pioneer Hemlata Tripathi, a 45-year-old resident of Jhansi, MP, whose 72-year-old mother Fukkan Pathak died due to the cold said: “After consigning my mother’s body to the river as we could not cremate her we sought the help of the Nepalese men there to help us get out of the area. However, we were in for a shock as the men decamped with our belongings after promising to help us. We had given these men our bags to carry as we could not mange it due to the steep climb. However, those men made off with our stuff.”
Madhulika, a young girl said that she saw some Nepali men carrying a girl to safety but she died along the way. The men then calmly stripped the dead girl of all her jewellery and other belongings. “Not just her, we saw them searching other unclaimed dead bodies along the way and stripping them of all gold, silver and money.” There are reports of the men misbehaving with women pilgrims.
Madhulika, who witnessed one such incident said: “We saw some Nepali men misbehaving with women pilgrims and threatening the men accompanying them.” Not just this, it seems the Nepalis are also resorting to cold blooded murder. A pilgrim said: “On the way we saw some people begging the Nepali porters to help them climb the steep sides of the mountain. The Nepalese men agreed to help them for a price and asked the pilgrims to hand over their belongings so that it would be easier to pull them out. However, once the pilgrims handed over their belongings to the men, the men made a pretence of pulling them up and then calmly let go of their hands so that many of the people fell into the river below and died.”
The local populace is livid at the fact that the Nepalis are giving a bad name to their State and have vowed to punish them.