Pushpa Kamal Dahal’s announcement last month to reopen investigation into the 17-year-old Gaur massacre has made the Janata Samajbadi Party (JSP), a key partner in the ruling coalition, deeply suspicious of the prime minister’s intentions.

Although Dahal, soon afterwards, seemed to have backtracked on his plan and assured JSP chair Upendra Yadav that there would be no such investigation, the party remains jittery. A meeting of the ruling coalition on August 15 had reportedly decided to drop the investigation plan.

“We were shocked by the prime minister’s announcement, because our party was not responsible for the deaths. We have long been informing our cadres and leaders about the truth of the Gaur incident,” said JSP spokesman Manish Suman.

According to Suman, the latest developments are nothing but the result of a behind-the-scenes ploy to drive a wedge between the JSP and the CPN (Maoist Centre) or Upendra Yadav and Prime Minister Dahal.

“Our observation is that there is no coordination between the Home Ministry and the Prime Minister’s Office,” said Suman. “Either there is no coordination, or the government doesn't have command over its own apparatuses.”

He, however, said his party does not suspect the prime minister’s honesty.

The JSP leaders were also surprised because a probe conducted by the Maoist party itself a few months after the incident had concluded that the stubbornness of the then Maoist leader Prabhu Sah had led to the deadly incident. A panel led by the then CPN (Maoist) leader Chakrapani Khanal had conducted the study.

The massacre occurred on March 21, 2007 in Gaur, the headquarters of Rautahat district where 27 members of the CPN (Maoist) were brutally killed and 115 injured in an ugly confrontation with the cadres of the then Madheshi Janadhikar Forum led by Yadav, who currently heads the JSP.

The Khanal panel’s study also listed the matters that the Maoist party should have paid attention to to avert the killings.

Some JSP leaders, meanwhile, speculate that Dahal may have made the statement in an attempt to keep the JSP and its chair Yadav in check as he fears that Yadav could partner with the main opposition CPN-UML to topple the government.

“But if Dahal resorts to such a move [reopen Gaur files], he will be digging his own grave,” said Mahesh Chaurasia, personal secretary to the JSP chair. “Dahal also won’t be spared of his war-era crimes.”

Yadav has also been saying publicly that if the government revives Gaur probe, then all the conflict-era cases should also be investigated.

With successive governments taking no initiative to investigate the massacre, the relatives of the victims staged a series of protests in the district starting July 29. After six days of agitation, the Prime Minister’s Office invited the protesters to a meeting, during which Prime Minister Dahal assured them that he would constitute a home secretary-led panel to discuss their demands and give justice. On August 8, a five-point agreement was signed between the home ministry and the Gaur Murder Victims Struggle Committee.

JSP chair Yadav was intensely annoyed by the deal.

Talking to the Post after the August 15 meeting, CPN (Unified Socialist) vice chair Rajendra Pandey had said the ruling parties decided to drop Gaur investigation plans. “Those killed during the incident have already received compensation of Rs1 million each, and most of them were declared martyrs by the government. So it was agreed that there is no need to reopen the case,” he had told the Post.

Nevertheless, Yadav and his aides are still troubled by the recent developments as Prabhu Sah, then CPN (Maoist) leader who currently leads Aam Janata Party, has been persistently demanding fresh investigation into the 17-year-old massacre.

Besides raising the issue in Parliament and in public, Sah says the massacre victims may even knock on the doors of the International Criminal Court in Hague if the government refuses to resume the investigation.

But JSP leaders argue that Gaur massacre was probed by at least half a dozen probe panels, including a committee led by the then justice of the Supreme Court, Khilraj Regmi, the United Nations Mission in Nepal (UNMIN), and the National Human Rights Commission and none of them implicated Yadav as he was in Kathmandu at the time of the massacre.

But their assertions could not be substantiated as some of the probe reports have not yet been made public.