Three people, including two minors, were left injured when a team of Armed Police Force personnel resorted to force in the name of enforcing the lockdown at Palhiandhan Bhagatpur in Nawalparasi (West) on Wednesday night. 

Akhilesh Goud, 10, Munna Goud, 14, and Purnabasi Goud, 65, were injured when the APF personnel hit them with batons for flouting the lockdown orders, locals said.

“The APF personnel started shouting and swinging their batons on a man who was heading to a neighbour’s home to get a mosquito net,” said Surendra Goud, a local man. 

He claimed that the APF men then entered the victims’ homes and hit them with their batons.

The injured are currently undergoing treatment at Parasi-based Prithvi Chandra Hospital. 

The locals have demanded action against the officers involved in the incident.

The APF, meanwhile, has presented a different version of the event. 

Bharat Khaniya, superintendent at the 26th Battalion of the Armed Police Force, said the APF team was in the area after receiving a tipoff regarding alcohol smuggling and it was the locals who attacked the security personnel.

“We had to retaliate when the locals started attacking. Some locals might have sustained injuries in the ensuing melee,” Khaniya said.