A
farmer in southern Nepal
mistook his son for a monkey
trying to steal his crops and shot the 12-year-old dead, police said on Sunday.
Chitra
Bahadur Pulami had
been climbing a tree to chase away macaques that had become a nuisance to the
family but his father Gupta
Bahadur, 55, spotted the boy and opened fire, wrongly believing
him to be one of the animals.
"The
son was hiding in a tree at their farm to chase away monkeys that used to come
searching for food in the maize field," said Arun Poudel, deputy superintendent of police in the
remote Arghakhanchi district
"The
son died on the spot after Gupta Bahadur mistakenly thought there was a monkey
in the tree and opened fire. Our preliminary investigation shows that the
father was unaware that his son had gone to the maize field to chase the
monkeys.
"Both
Gupta Bahadur and the gun that he used in shooting his son are now under the
custody of the police."
The
three species of monkey native to Nepal, the rhesus and Assamese
macaque and the common langur, are considered sacred and farmers normally try
to scare them away from their crops without injuring the animals.
"I
realised my mistake only when my son fell down and got stuck in one of the
tree's branches," the farmer was quoted as telling police by the Nepali
nagariknews.com website after the incident, on Friday.
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