Mira Katwal was accompanying Nepali Congress provincial assembly candidate Narayan Karki on the campaign trail in Nepaltar of Udaypur on 29 November when a roadside bomb went off with a terrible bang. Their jeep was thrown into the air. Both were seriously injured, as was the driver and seven others.
Katwal and Karki were immediately airlifted to Kathmandu, where they are still at Teaching Hospital. While the nation’s attention is focused on the election results, those who risked their lives in the elections and became victims of violence, like these two, have been forgotten.
Karki, 68, is a school principal. His left leg is broken in five places and his right leg in three. Katwal, 35, is a student of education and had to have her right leg amputated. Both are ideologically committed, and believed they were working to strengthen democracy, and never imagined that they would be injured in the kind of ambush more reminiscent of the conflict years.
Meeting her in hospital, Katwal doesn’t show any pain or self-pity. “Cowards attack you from behind. I have lost my leg, but I haven’t lost even a inch of my commitment and self-confidence,” says Katwal, who has been active in student politics. “I lost my leg while working for the party, and I will dedicate the rest of my life to the party.”