Indian leads bloodbath at Nepal's sacrifice fair

Raman Thakur from Sitamarhi district bordering Nepal’s Terai plains shot to limelight at the controversial fair of Hindu goddess Gadhimai in Baraiyapur village in southern Nepal’s Bara district, axing 105 buffaloes at the altar.

“At the last fair five years ago, Thakur had prayed to the goddess for a son,” the local MP and leader of the fair committee, Shiv Chandra Kushawa, said.

“The goddess granted his wish and he came with the offerings as a thanks-giving.”
Kushawa, who belongs to the opposition Maoist party that claims to be atheists, said almost 75 per cent of the visitors at the fair — whose main attraction is the slaughter of tens of thousands animals — are from India. “While they are mostly from Bihar, there are others from Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal and other Indian states neighbouring Nepal,” he said.