By IANS,
Kathmandu : Though calling India their arch enemy and accusing it of preventing them from coming to power, Nepal’s opposition Maoist party however rallied behind the neighbouring country Friday, refuting an allegation that their guerrilla fighters had been armed and trained by Indian security forces.
The former rebels challenged an ex-army officer, Gen Bibek Shah of the Nepal Army, to prove the allegation in his recently released memoir that he had information India had trained Nepal’s Maoist guerrillas to help abolish monarchy in Nepal.
“It is totally wrong and implausible,” the Maoist mouthpiece Janadisha daily quoted Maoist MP and former foreign affairs chief Chandra Prakash Gajurel as saying.
“It can never be true. We challenge him to prove what he says.”
Gajurel said during their decade-old “People’s War”, the Maosts had sworn to wage a “tunnel war” against India to end “Indian interference” in Nepal.
“Who will give arms training to an organisation seeking to wage a tunnel war against it,” Gajurel asked.
Maoist spokesman and lawmaker Dinanath Sharma said it was part of the propaganda against his party.
“India has also refuted the allegation,” he said.
The rebuttals came after Gen. Shah, former military secretary to slain king Birendra and his successor, king Gyanendra, released his memoir Wednesday, claiming he had been removed from his post because he was investigating reports received by him that India had trained Maoist guerrillas in Chakrauta in its Uttarakhand state.
The book – Maile dekheko durbar – The court as I saw it – also alleges Birendra’s assassination could have been incited by arms rivalry as he had sought to buy advanced German assault rifles for the Nepal Army while India did not approve of its neighbour possessing such sophisticated weapons.
The Indian authorities have already reacted to the memoir, calling the allegations “baseless and unfounded”.
There was no immediate reaction from Gen. Shah, who claimed he was privy to Birendra’s confidential dossiers and had written his memoir for the sake of Nepal’s history.