On September 9, protestors repeatedly attacked the office of the Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA) located in Tangal, Kathmandu.
According to a senior CIAA official, there were approximately 50 people in the office that day, including about 15 staff members and the rest being police personnel.
Since afternoon, different groups of protestors had been repeatedly arriving at the CIAA and chanting slogans. The staff and police managed to persuade and send back the angry crowds.
"We managed to persuade and send back about five groups," the official said. "They caused some minor damage but nothing too severe. However, the crowd that came later was aggressive and uncontrollable."
The group that arrived around 5:30 p.m. was unruly. This group started vandalizing property indiscriminately. Despite the attempts by the CIAA staff to reason with them, they did not listen.
"They had come after looting, setting fires, and drinking alcohol. They were carrying weapons like khukuris and knives. They started saying that they wouldn't listen to anyone and threatened to set fire to vehicles," the official said. "After that, we felt helpless."
Due to security threats, the staff remained inside the office rooms.
Later, the protestors set vehicles on fire. But they didn't stop there. They entered the office building and set fire to the administration section and a couple of other departments. They also burned books.
The CIAA staff tried to stop and reason with them, but they wouldn't listen at all.
Around 6 p.m., it started getting dark. The CIAA itself had cut off the electricity for safety reasons.
Another group of protestors came after that, and its sole motive was theft.
The group broke open the CPUs of computers, extracted the hard disks and took them away. Some specifically searched for and stole files and records related to corruption cases. They took away equipment used for digital forensic work. They also carried off laptops.
"It seemed as if they were looking for records of specific individuals. They appeared to have been mobilized for that purpose," the official explained the events of that day. "It seems there were different kinds of groups. It felt like they had come exploiting the name of Gen Z for their own interests."
According to the official, 74 motorcycles, 17 vehicles, and 2 buses were set on fire at the CIAA's office in Tangal. Many documents were also burned.
In Itahari, 50 percent of documents and all vehicles and were burned. In the CIAA’s Hetauda branch, 75 percent of documents and all vehicles were set on fire. In Pokhara, all the documents and vehicles were burned, while in the Butwal branch, 25 percent of documents and all vehicles were set ablaze.
The official mentioned that since most of the digital records in Kathmandu were preserved, almost everything has been recovered so far.
"There might be some issues with the districts’ records, but there won’t be any problem here. Work will resume now," the official said.
According to the official, five to seven laptops and digital forensic equipment have been recovered so far.
