Tension that built up in Punarbas Municipality, Kanchanpur, for almost the entire day today over a dispute related to an attempted child marriage yesterday subsided following an agreement with the police in the evening.

As per sources, yesterday a 15-year-old boy and a girl aged 14 of Punarbas Municipality-11 had tried to tie the knot by running away from their houses. However, after getting the wind of the plan of the minors, the kin of the boy informed the police immediately. After being tipped off, a police team from Pachakadiya Police Post detained the couple.

“Though the families of both the boy and girl were called for a discussion at the police office, no one from the girl’s family attended the discussion, that is why we decided to keep the girl under police care while the boy was handed over to his family, but the locals got angry for no reason, and turned on us,” said Inspector Krishnanand Bhatta at Kanchanpur DPO.

“As no one came from the girl’s side to attend the discussion, Inspector Karna Bahadur Bam of Tribhuvanbasti Area Police Office tried to take the girl to his office for security, but the locals stood up against the idea and attacked police,” Bhatta said, adding police had to take to baton charging to take the situation under control.

Three persons, including Ward 11 Chair Tulasi Aryal, were injured in the baton charge.

Today, locals took to demonstration from early morning protesting the ‘high-handedness’ of the police. While the demonstrators burnt tyres and obstructed vehicular movement on the postal road, they picketed the police post as well. Injured ward chair accused the ‘tipsy’ police of getting provoked unnecessarily.

“We had gone to the police office to take part in the discussion aiming to stop child marriage, but the police attacked us, which was unfortunate,” said Aryal, seeking action against the cops involved in the ‘unwarranted action’ on the civilians.

Normalcy returned after Superintendent of Police Dinesh Kumar  Acharya from District Police Office reached the site and promised to investigate the incident and take action against police personnel if found guilty.

With the situation turning normal, the girl who had been kept at Pachakadiya Police Post was handed over to her kin today.