Kathmandu-Martyr Dharma Bhakta Mathema was remembered today amid a memorial meeting organised at Sifal, where Mathema was executed by the then-autocratic Rana regime.
The Kathmandu Metropolitan City (KMC), Martyrs Week Commemoration Main Committee organised the memorial meeting. KMC Deputy Mayor Sunita Dangol offered a garland to martyr Mathema’s statue and paid a heartfelt tribute to him on the occasion.
Deputy Mayor Dangol spoke on Mathema’s contribution to ushering in democracy in the country and in social transformation.
KMC Ward 7 chairman Bimal Kumar Hoda said the message given by the martyrs that there should be a rule of law and not that of an individual should be emulated and respected.
Tribhuvan University former vice-chancellor Kedar Bhakta Mathema said the martyrs laid down their lives for civil rights and freedom, and they expected nothing other than that.
The KMC organised the programme, commemorating the day when Mathema attained martyrdom. Mathema was hanged from a tree at Sifal on Magh 13, 1997 BS for carrying out activities against the Rana rulers. He was 31 years old when he was executed.
Similarly, the metropolis has also erected life-size statues of Martyr Mathema at his birthplace, Ombahal, and Sifal.
The programme was a part of the martyr’s week being observed across the country in memory of four martyrs including Mathema, Shukra Raj Shastri, Dasrath Chand and Gangalal Shrestha, who was executed by the Rana rulers for initiating a democratic movement in the country.
The then prime minister Juddha Shumsher announced the death penalty for the four martyrs on January 19, 1941.
The KMC started to observe Martyrs’ Week in 2012 by forming the Martyr’s Week Ceremony Committee. RSS
