Biratnagar, April 19: Police have detained six Singaporean nationals from Hotel Eastern Star in Biratnagar on charges of engaging in unauthorised religious proselytising.
Acting on a tip-off, police raided a program being held Saturday morning in the hotel’s banquet hall, where a religious session related to “Laughing Buddha” was underway. According to Assistant Chief District Officer Saroj Koirala of Morang, the group was conducting the activity without legal authorisation.
Those arrested include the main organisers, Singaporean nationals Ko Wei Hak and Loh Li Peng, along with four others.
Alongside them, Nepali assistant Niraj Rajbhandari and around 30 participants, including 12 girls under the age of 16, were also present during the event.
Police said a statue of the Laughing Buddha had been installed in the hall, and participants were being trained under the guise of teachings linked to Gautam Buddha, which authorities suspect amounted to religious conversion activities.
People’s News Monitoring Service
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