Kathmandu, April 26 -- Inside Dasharath Stadium in Kathmandu on Saturday, a municipal police officer told landless squatters evicted from the Thapathali riverbank settlement: "Those going to Kirtipur carry nothing except bedding and clothes. Leave everything else where it is."

Their homes, built over years of sweat and struggle, had just been reduced to rubble. Holding the hands of family members, they arrived at the stadium in a state of shock.

Leaning against a wall, 58-year-old Hira Hari Dusad asked the officer, "What will happen to the belongings taken out of our house?"

The officer replied, "Are you also going to Kirtipur? Later, hand those things over there [to be sold] as scrap."

Hira fell silent. A vehicle waiting outside the ...