Three members of a family of Nepali origin died of burn injuries in an Indian hospital Wednesday night after all five members of the family resorted to self-immolation in front of the Office of the Rajkot Municipal Corporation in Gujarat, India, protesting against the proposed demolition of their house located in Raiyadhar area of the city.

The family members, including three women, turned up at the civic body office with kerosene-filled containers around noon and poured kerosene on their body before setting themselves on fire, Indian media reports said. The family feared eviction from their shanty as municipal officials were planning to raze it in a drive to remove illegal structures.

Nepali embassy in New Delhi said they are in constant touch with the Indian Ministry of External Affairs and have sought necessary cooperation regarding the incident.

"Though local Nepali community has told us that the head of the family originally migrated from Achham district in farwestern Nepal for work over three decades ago, this has yet to be verified independently," said Tirtha Wagle, Counsellor at Nepalese embassy in New Delhi.

But Mumbai-based Nepali journalist Prakash Paudel, the deceased are from Kalagaun VDC-5 of Achham. The deceased have been identified as Bharat Bishwakarma, 40; Girish Bishwakarma, 35; and Ashadevi Bishwakarma. Those criticially injured are Basmatidevi and Rekhadevi, who are undergoing treatment at the local Deendayal Hospital, according to Paudel. He also informed that locals had prevented Kantadevi and Gauradevi from setting themselves on fire.

It is learnt that the head of the family, who died a few years ago, worked as a security guard at a local company. "Since we have come to learn that there was a dispute over the ownership of the building they were living in, it is too early to make any comment as to what exactly could have led the family to resort to self-immolation bid," Wagle said over telephone.

Officials at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MoFA) in Kathmandu said they were trying to get additional details about the deceased family. "We have informally asked the Indian foreign ministry to look into the case seriously. We will officially write to the ministry once we get further details about them including their origins," said a senior official, asking not to be named.

Meanwhile, the members of victim family said they were constantly harassed by the municipal officials and others to vacate the house.

"We were being harassed by the civic body officials, society members and local politicians to vacate our house which they said was illegally constructed. They had threatened to demolish it so we resorted to taking such an extreme step," the Hindustan Times quoted a member of the victim family, Gauridevi.

Meanwhile, the main opposition Congress party in Gujrat enforced Rajkot shutdown for Thursday, accusing the Rastriya Janata Party-ruled civic body of driving people to commit self-immolation. Separately, the Rajkot Municipal Council has anounced to provide compensation to the victim family, Indian media reports said.

Published on: 5 April 2013 | Republica