Nepalese perspective
Cross-border terrorism, Nepal, India, Pakistan

By Bhola B Rana

Kathmandu, 29 Nov: The issue of cross-border terrorism in volatile South Asia has again gained international attention with Indian charges Pakistan was behind the devastating and deadly terror attacks on Mumbai killing at least 150 persons, including Americans and Israelis.
Pakistan denied the fresh New Delhi charges. Rawalpindi has leveled similar charges against India in the past.
The exchange of charges by the two Asian nuclear powers will continue.
India has charged Nepal for ignoring anti-India activities conducted by Pakistan’s dreaded ISI from the terai bordering the northern states of UP and Bihar—accusations denied by Nepal.
The Himalayan state has repeatedly assured its giant southern neighbour such activities won’t be tolerated. New Delhi has also accused Bangladesh for promoting cross-border terrorist activities.
If India is to be believed, it is ringed by three states in the north, east and west harbouring and exporting cross-border terrorism.
Coming back to Nepal, an Indian
court earlier this year returned two foreign nationals secretly extradited to India, without proper proceedings, after Nepal Police delivered them across the border at the request of India’s CBI.
The foreigners were charged for alleged involvement in bomb blasts that killed more 200 people in Mumbai before the latest blasts.
During the his concluded Nepal visit, Indian Foreign Minister Pranab Mukherjee again pressed Nepal to sign an extradition treaty to handover suspects in Nepal allegedly involved in so-called anti-India activities.
The treaty was ready for signature during the one-party rule of ousted Girija Prasad Koirala but was stopped by Maoists when they joined a government under Koirala.
The Maoist-led government of Prime Minister Prachanda handled the Mukherjee cautiously.
The Prachanda government asked Mukherjee to curb what it calls the criminal activities of hundreds of rebels from the terai from across the border.
India has ignored the requests amid reports that state and federal officials have attended meetings of the rebel groups; some constituents of the alliance are pushing for cessation fo the terai plans from the hills.
These rebels have made India their base as New Delhi ignores repeated requests from Kathmandu to curb their activities and handover leaders to Nepal.
Prachanda famously said this year he spent eight of the 10 years of the people’s war in India and not the jungles of Nepal to topple King Gyanendra in April 2005.
Prachanda and his gang, declared terrorists by both India and Nepal, were moving around unhindered in India before emerging on the national scene to join the political mainstream.
Prachanda and Baburam Bhattarai were walking the corridors of power even as declared terrorists as India and political parties opposed to Gyanendra plotted the king’s overthrow.
Declared terrorists were nurtured by India and sent across the border to topple the king and monarchy in Nepal while New Delhi refused to negotiate with its own radical Maoist Naxalites on a rampage posing, according to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, the most serious threat to India.
The threat, Singh, said was more serious that the insurgencies in Kashmir and the noth-east.