This report was prepared on the basis of THRD Alliance Chair Dipendra Jha's field visit. On August 17, the day before the Bhardah Police fired shots at the protesters; tension ran high between the police and the protestors. The SPs of Nepal Police and Armed Police Force came to Federal Socialist Forum- Nepal Saptari District Chairman Dinesh Yadav and FSP-N Central Committee member Shailendra Shah, who was leading the protest, in the evening and urged them to ease the strike so that 100 -150 vehicles stranded in the areas could pass through the road. Normally the protestors were letting the vehicles pass at around midnight so these two leaders told the police officers that they would consult with their other supporters and would come back. These two leaders asked the police officers to give them one hour before they could finally give them an answer. The two police officers, however, kept insisting these two leaders ease the general strike imposed by them, and that lead to heated exchanges between the two sides. The police even vandalized the motorbikes of Yadav and Shah which irked the protestors. The next day on August 18, the protestors began erecting a tent at around 8 am on the road with the clear intention of blocking the road to enforce their general strike. At this moment, Inspectors of District Police Office, Saptari, Amat Lal Majhi, and Meghraj Thapa came to the protestors and began beating them. Other protestors ran away from the spot but Yadav and Shah did not. Then a group of almost a dozen police surrounded these two local leaders and began raining batons on them. This act of the police infuriated the locals who felt humiliated and called in people from around the nearby village to protest against the police's brutality. As a large mass gathered from the villages, they started pelting stones at the police forcing the police to retreat. Villagers continued to pelt stones at the police even when they retreated to their office. Then the police without giving any warning started firing live bullets at the protestors. Rajiv Raut, who was killed in the police firing, was half a kilometer away from the protest placed and was just a curious onlooker. He fell on the ground after receiving the first bullet in his chest. The police blocked the areas preventing people from taking him to the hospital. Police did not follow any standard procedure before using lethal force. They should have given the warning to the people and should have used tear gas canisters and/or rubber bullets before firing live bullets but the police did not follow any of these procedures before firing live bullets at the protestors. Some of the bullets aimed at the protestors hit the nearby houses making holes in the roof, walls, and other structures. One bullet which hit a bamboo tree made a huge hole in it. Almost 10 people were injured in the firing. Vijay Thakur, a local CPN-UML leader, who was not part of the protest, also sustained a bullet injury in his foot. A policeman beat Ashok Yadav, an FSP-N youth leader when he was being transported to a hospital in an ambulance. Among those people who were injured by the police were: Gopal Bhar, Bijay Thakur, Deepak Sah, Naveen Kumar Mandal, Mukesh Kumar Mandal, Gopal Mandal, Satya Narayan Raut, Amar Kantha Thakur, Hiralal Sah, Surendra Mandal, and Dev Narayan Biswas. The situation of Dev Narayan Biswas who sustained injuries in both legs is said to be critical. Surendra Mandal who was hit in one of his legs and Gopal Mandal who sustained bullet injuries in his stomach is undergoing treatment at Golden Hospital, Biratnagar.