Part II: Rautahat Brick Kiln Massacre

In 2017, Alam won in the first federal election for the Nepali Congress. 

Nepal was going through a red wave, a powerful coalition of two communist parties (which later unified), aligned with a fringe ethnic party that also had its roots in the two large communist parties creating a majority of two-thirds.   

On April 2008 before the election eyewitness, Mohammad Aftab Alam was seen packing the injured persons in sacks, dumping their bodies in a brick kiln fire, and killing them. 

On May 29, 2012, the Supreme Court revoked the decision of OAG and ordered a proper investigation. 

The court order remained neglected against a powerful politician, then petitioners filed a complaint with the Judgement Execution Directorate, on October 13, 2019, Aftab Alam was finally arrested.  

On November 4, 2019, the Rautahat District Court started recording Alam’s statements. 

The 800-page investigation recommended imprisonment until death or life imprisonment along with confiscation of Alam’s property on the charge of murder. 

On November 2019, Gauri Shankar Ram Chamar, a victim of the brick kiln massacre appealed for his security when he stated Alam’s henchmen abducted him and took him captive for four days to change the statement he had recorded in court. 

He was also offered money to change his statement or else he will be killed. Alam also tried to make Amina Khatun the widow of Mohammed Osi Akhtar (a local killed in the bomb blast) change her statement to file stating that Osi was working abroad in exchange for money. 

She later backtracked after media reported she had already received an official death certificate for her late husband. Osi Akhtar’s mother Ruksana was killed by an unidentified group after she complained about Alam and others involved in the death of her son in the bomb blast. 

On November 15, 2019, Rautahat District Court sent Alam to jail. Alam continuously wrote petitions for bail but all went in vain.

On May 2020 police raided Aftab’s house to search for his brother, Mahatab Alam another alleged perpetrator of the incident. The Mayor of Rajpur Municipality, Sheikh Shakil condemned the unilateral impromptu raid that disturbed the Alam family and the community. 

This revealed the structure of Alam’s influence who is one of few people who have been apprehended and suffered a strong public backlash. It took more than a decade to bring him to justice.