Nepal's top maoist leaders said to be in India
Dated 12/8/2006
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Top leaders of Nepal's Maoist party are said to be in Siliguri, India - media reports suggested Saturday.
Pushpa Kamal Dahal, alias Prachanda, chairman of the Communist Party of Nepal-Maoist Party as well as supreme commander of the rebels’ Maoist army, the "People’s Liberation Army", and his deputy, architect-turned rebel Baburam Bhattarai, arrived in Siliguri town in West Bengal Friday evening, Nepali newspapers said Saturday.
After a brief halt in Jhapa district in eastern Nepal, on the India-Nepal border, where they held consultations with party leaders, the rebel leaders headed for Siliguri.
Accompanying them are a senior leader of the formerly outlawed party, Gauri Shankar Khadka, as well as Prachanda’s son Prakash, and wife Sita.
The Maoist leaders could meet a senior party leader Mohan Vaidya, who is currently imprisoned in Siliguri, Nepal’s official media said.
Vaidya was arrested in Siliguri about two years ago when he had gone for an eye operation.
Private television channel Kantipur said the rebel leaders could be heading for India to meet Sitaram Yechuri, politburo member of the Communist Party of India (Marxist).
Till last year, Maoist leaders had to travel under secrecy in India since they were considered a terrorist organisation by the Indian government.
Nearly 130 Maoist leaders and cadres are being held in various Indian prisons and two were arrested in New Delhi and handed over to the Nepal government.
However, New Delhi’s viewpoint changed last year, after King Gyanendra seized power by force, leading to escalation in violence due to the political turmoil there.
India is widely perceived as having brokered an agreement between the Maoists and the opposition parties, resulting in a united movement against the king that forced him to step down this year.
Since then, the new government of Nepal has withdrawn the terrorist tag on the Maoists and begun peace negotiations with them. The rebels could be joining an interim government.
Recently, the Maoists stepped up a diplomatic lobbying, meeting the Indian ambassador to Nepal Shiv Shankar Mukherjee and other diplomats in Kathmandu.
(Additional Reporting India eNews)
