After Supreme Court ordered its administration to register petitions against CPN (Maoist Centre) Chair and Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal, two writ petitions have been filed against PM Dahal for claiming responsibility of 5,000 deaths during the Civil War era.

On January 2020, Dahal had expressed that he would take responsibility for 5,000 killed during the Civil War insurgency period.

Stating that the government during the insurgency was responsible for the killing of 12,000 people, Dahal said holding him responsible for the atrocities committed by the then state would be injustice.

“Please check the statistics. The then-state killed 12,000 people. If you hold me responsible for the killing of 5,000 persons, I am ready to accept it,” Dahal had given this statement in a public event on the occasion of the 2020 Maghi festival.

Earlier, advocates Gyanendra Raj Aran, Kalyan Budhathoki, and others had filed a petition in the apex court demanding investigation and action against Dahal in criminal charges as per his statement.

However, the Supreme Court administration had refused to register the petitions filed by advocates stating that the application submitted on the basis of expression of political nature could not be registered.

Hearing the case filed by two advocates against the decision of the administration, a bench of justices Ishwor Prasad Khatiwada and Hari Prasad Phuyal ordered the court administration to register the petitions.

According to a report from the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), over 1,300 people in connection with the decade-long armed conflict are still missing.

The then CPN-Maoist, with Dahal as its chairman, waged the armed insurgency for 10 years (1996-2006) in the name of ‘People’s War’.

The rebellion officially came to an end after a Comprehensive Peace Agreement was signed on November 21, 2006 by the-then Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala on behalf of the government and PM Dahal on behalf of the guerilla.

During the 10-year-long conflict, at least 17,000 civilians were killed by both the-then state and the Maoist group with property damage of more than hundreds of billions of rupees.