The government declared 42-year-old Lajehang Limbu (Padam Limbu) a martyr on 7 April 2023. Limbu was injured by the police on 19 March during the protest against the naming of Koshi Province which previously was Province 1. He died on 24 March during treatment.
According to Dilkumar Tamang, the information officer of the Ministry of Home Affairs, the meeting of the Council of Ministers on 7 April, has been decided to declare Lajehang as a martyr. However, written information about compensation or relief is yet to be released.
The victim’s family alleges that Lajehang Limbu,42, who was living in Dharan Sub-Metropolitian-City- 15 Bagzhara of Sunsari, a permanent resident of Myanglung municipality-9 Jirikhimti of Tehrithum district.
The Struggle Committee issued a statement on 24 regarding the death of Limbu, on 24 March, BP Koirala Health Science Institute, Dharan Ghopa.
According to Amar Ijam, a member of the Struggle Committee, the government declared Lajehang a martyr and according to the decision of the Central Committee, the post-mortem of the dead body will be conducted, on 7 April. The dead body of Limbu is at the mortuary of BP Koirala Institute of Health Sciences, Dharan Ghopa.
The Koshi Province government has decided to provide Rs. 3,00,000 rupees to Lajehang’s family as support.
Bhaktiprasad Sitaula, the spokesperson of the provincial government, said that the meeting of the Council of Ministers of the Koshi Province government on 27 March decided to provide relief of Rs. 3,00,000 to the families of the deceased. The victim is Lajehang Limbu, Commander of Federal Democratic National Forum-Federal Limbuwan.
To investigate the incident, the federal government formed a six-member investigation committee under the coordination of Rambandhu Subedi, joint secretary of the Ministry of Home Affairs, on 25 March.
Morang Assistant Chief District Officer Sharad Kumar Pokharel, Nepal Police SP Navinraj Rai, Armed Police SP Ramesh Upreti, National Investigation Commission Deputy Director Sherjung Bahadur Chand, and Deputy Secretary Ramkrishna Shahi are on the committee.
Assistant Chief District Officer of Morang, Sharad Kumar Pokharel, said that the committee, which started the investigation on 28 March, submitted the investigation report to the Government of Nepal on 3 April.
According to Pokharel, the investigation committee discussed the incident with the victim’s family, and officials of the struggle committee observed the incident site and prepared a report.
Regarding the incident, a team of human rights activists including INSEC Koshi Province Chief Somraj Thapa met the victim’s family on 30 March and gathered information about the incident.
Two-thirds of the members of the Koshi Provincial Assembly voted on 1 March, to rename the then Province 1 as Koshi Province.
The Provincial government published a notice in the state gazette, on 2 March, declaring the new name of the province as Koshi Province state because of its name.