The social fabric of the Jelbang killings, Nepal

Sixty-eight people from the village of Jelbang in western Nepal are documented to have died in the course of the decade-long ‘People’s War’, making it perhaps the village that suffered the highest number of casualties in the entire country. This paper, which is based on empirical research and the analysis of secondary data, examines the circumstances behind the unusually high number of deaths in Jelbang. The analysis shows that the killings were due to a complex interplay of events, personalities and timing as well as particular interrelationships between the central administration and its local representatives and the state security forces. In an atmosphere of impunity, and with the support and facilitation of the administration, the police brutalised the local population.