Nepalekhabar.com

US-headquartered Human Rights Watch (HRW) has urged the Nepali government to curb the police torture against children in Nepal on the eve of the Nepali Children’s Day (November 20).

Referring to more than 200 cases of torture and abuse by Nepali police against children in custody, Asia researcher for HRW Bede Sheppard, states, The Nepali police have a duty to protect children and to prevent crime. Instead, by torturing children in custody they are committing crimes against those they are supposed to be protecting."

The HRW has asked the Nepali government to urgently address the "widespread torture and ill-treatment” against children.

The HRW has referred to kicking; fist blows to the body; inserting metal nails under children's toenails; and hitting the soles of feet, thighs, upper arms, backs of hands, and the back with bamboo sticks and plastic pipes as some of the major torture methods used by Nepali police against children in Nepal.

Moreover, the HRW says that most of the tortured children are suspects for petty crimes.

Sheppard states, "Sometimes, the torture is inflicted to extract confessions from the children while at other times it appears to be carried out purely for the entertainment of the official."

The HRW has asked the government to break its indifference to such a serious case.

Sheppard in her statement has claimed that the HRW report is based on highly credible sources.