Kathmandu, Jan. 13 -- This week, in a crime that shocked the nation, a young engineering student was killed and his body crushed with a tipper truck for opposing a sand-mining contractor in Dhanusha.
Just 24 years old, Om Prakash ('Dilip') Mahato had come home from college in Bhopal in India. He was incensed about how the Churiyamai Crusher Industry was illegally extracting sand and boulders from the Aurahi River under cover of darkness. The contractor Bipin Mahato had threatened the boy's father three days previously, saying he would kill him for trying to ruin his business.
Before dawn on a fog-bound morning last Friday, Dilip heard earth-moving vehicles near the farm and went to inspect. He was attacked with an iron rod, and killed by...