Bhaktapur. A total of 22 security personnel were injured in an attack by the residents of the squatter settlement while trying to remove the illegal construction of houses in the squatter settlement on the banks of the Manohara River in Bhaktapur.

Security personnel demolished seven houses using dozers at the landless settlement in the evening, which led to an attack on the Nepal Police and Armed Police Force.

Surya Bahadur Khadka, chief of the District Police Range Bhaktapur, said the group hurled stones, bricks and bottles at the security personnel while demolishing a house at the Manohara squatters’ settlement.

“80 percent of the landless squatters of Manohara had already taken their belongings in the daytime,” he said, adding, “The structures were demolished after a team with dozers was brought to Manohara after removing the settlements of landless squatters in Thapathali and Grahrigaun. ”

Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) of Madhyapur Thimi Police Circle, Nawaraj Dhungana, and 11 other police personnel were injured in the attack. Similarly, 11 more APF personnel deputed from Armed Police Force No. 22 Duwakot were injured in the attack, said Superintendent of Police Basudev Mahat. He said that the structure will be demolished again from Sunday morning.

There are 777 huts in the Manohara squatters’ settlement. Sunil Lama, a resident of the settlement, said, “Most of the houses here have been rented out, a group has built huts in the beginning and sold them for Rs 3 lakh to seven lakhs and concrete houses for Rs 18 lakh. We have also been buying huts for 15 years. It will be enough if the government provides proper management to squatters like us.” ”

It is said that some people regularly come to collect rent from the residents of the slums. Many people in the settlement have been paying the rent.