Nepalese Police Target Long-Haired Tattoed Youths

They say, don’t judge a book by its cover.

Well this doesn’t apply to the Nepalese police.

Since last week, they’ve arrested more than a thousand people for having long hair, tattoos and piercings.

One of them is Ashes Dangol who regularly sings in the popular Everest Irish Pub in Thamel, Kathmandu.

He has knotted, long hair and silver rings in both his ears.

“My father and my mother, they always say me, "Oh! Why don't you cut your hair? It's long and it looks weird’,” he recalls.

“When I was at school, I was thrown out from the class to cut my hair. But I just like to have long hairs. I love to have piercing my ears. Musicians always mostly have long hairs since and now.  It's our rights. This is our freedom.”
 
And once again, his appearance has landed him in trouble.

“When I have to go outside on the street, then I always wear my hats because I don't want to be caught by police and talk face to face. They will cut my hair. So it's always keep bothering me you know like I have long hair may be they will catch me.”

And one day, he was taken to police custody and made to sign papers.

“Police officers were saying, “See! This guy with long hair! You guys having a big attitude, different than the normal person. That's why you are here in the custody".”

He was arrested along with hundreds other young people – all who have long hair, tattoos or piercings.

Kathmandu Police Chief, Rana Bahadur Chand, is the man behind the drive.

“Our criminal reports show that most crimes are committed by young people between the ages 15 to 22 and they normally have the same appearance,” he says defending his decision.

“So we brought these suspicious youths to the police office. We called their parents, gave them security counseling. And we told them not to repeat such behavior in the future.”

Does it mean that long hair, ear rings or tattoos are a security risk?

“You can have long hair. You can have earrings,” he answers. “But society also has norms, values and traditions. And you have to follow them.”

“We can talk about freedom, but no one has the right to ruin our culture. We want to create an acceptable society.  And the police response is motivated by this. We have pressure from the parents as well. But we always act according to the law.”

Since the campaign began, the police have arrested a total of 1200 people, under the draconian Public Offence Act, which permits detention without charge for up to 25 days.

The law was introduced in the 70s and last amended twenty years ago.

“It's arbitrary operation of Nepal police. It's unfair.  It's totally not acceptable,” says Tanka Aryal, Nepalese Supreme Court lawyer.

He says the recent police campaign undermines people’s constitutional rights.

“You have rights to freedom of choice. Until and unless my choice harms others rights, I am free to exercise my rights.”

He’s so upset with the latest police drive.

“I don't see any scope of having long hairs or wearing ornaments, or having tattoos in his body really violate the other rights. My idea is we cannot generalize the issue. If you find one short guy committing crime, next day you cannot arrest all the short guys claiming that he or she might be criminal.”

Police have said that the campaign was initiated following suggestions from parents and guardians.

“May be guardian want their kids having very clean shaved, short hair. But the society has moved on and the youngsters have different choice,” he disagress.

“In that case, we have to respect the choice of the people, freedom of the expression of the people.  We cannot impose our old convictions, our old idea to the youngsters and limit their scopes.”

And as a protest, a music concert was held next to the main Kathmandu Police Office.

Many of Nepal’s top musicians joined the crowd. The protest ended with a signed petition addressed to the Police Chief urging him not to repeat such a campaign.

While another group has created a Facebook page called “Together Against Police Atrocity”.

Young law students have already filed a case to the Supreme Court against the Nepalese Police.

And at the Irish Pub, Ashes says he has posted a photo of his long hair on twitter and sent it to the Prime Minister.

“You can see people having long hairs, piercing and tattoos are doctors, engineers and pilots. We are in the 21st centuries and the concept of the police is like 1970s or before. I always feel there needs to be some changes in police department,” says Ashes.

“We need more open minded people in police department.”