NEWSLINKS US EDITION SOUTH ASIA COLUMNISTS DIARY SPECIALS INTERVIEWS CAPITAL BUZZ REDIFF POLL DEAR REDIFF THE STATES ELECTIONS ARCHIVES US ARCHIVES SEARCH REDIFF
Backing warrants issued by district administrators in Nepal, Interpol on Sunday issued red-corner notices against three leaders of the Communist Party of Nepal, Maoist. The list includes Krishna Bahadur Mahara, Matrika Yadav, and Post Bahadur Bogati. Interpol also called on the international community to arrest and extradite the rebels.
According to the Interpol notices put up on its Web site, Mahara, 44, and Bogati, 60, have been charged with terrorism. Similarly, Yadav, 55, has been charged with murder and terrorism.
The red-corner notices allow the warrant to be circulated worldwide with the request that the wanted person be arrested for extradition.
The organisation based in Lyons, France, also issued notifications to its 179 member countries, including India, with which Nepal shares a 1700km open border. The notifications include information about 40 other top Maoist leaders, including Mohan Baidya alias Kiran and Ram Bahadur Thapa alias Badal. All of them have been charged with murder, terrorism, and armed robbery.
"But the notification issued against the 40 leaders will not be considered mandatory for the Interpol member countries," said Pashupati Sharma, chief of the Interpol section of the Nepal police. "Unlike in the case of the senior-most leaders, no criminal charges against the Maoists are pending in our courts."
The development came two days after Mahara, the chief Maoist negotiator in last year's failed peace talks, made a rare television appearance and told the world that the violent rebellion going on in Nepal is 'a people's war, a people's movement'.
In mid-August this year, Interpol issued similar notices against eight other top Maoist leaders. The list included 'Prachanda' and Babu Ram Bhattarai besides standing committee members Pampha Bhusal and Agni Sapkota. The people's government chief of Dolakha district Rit Bahadur Khadka, leaders Chandra Prakash Gajurel and Haribol Gajurel, and student leader Devendra Parajuli were also included in the list.
Nepalese police and Royal Nepal Army officers suspect that most of the rebel leaders are hiding in India. But India maintains that Nepal should inform the country about the location of the Maoist leaders.
The Sher Bahadur Deuba government, which was sacked by King Gyanendra in early October, had declared the Maoists terrorists after they unilaterally broke a cease-fire in November 2001. The Deuba government had also put a price of Nepali Rs 400,000 on the rebel leaders' heads. The Lokendra Bahadur Chand government, however, has not called them terrorists in public forums yet.
The Interpol notices come in the wake of an increasing inclination towards peace talks and negotiated settlement of the nearly seven-year-old conflict.
ALSO SEE: 22 rebels, 4 soldiers killed in Nepal as fighting continues Maoists kill 50 security men in Nepal attacks
Back to top
Tell us what you think of this report
