TERASU BOYCOTT

DOZEN ARMED GROUPS IN TERAI UNITE AGAINST ELECTIONS AFTER CPN MAOIST BOYCOTT OF VOTE Kathmandu, 3 July: A dozen armed underground outfits, involved in various criminal activities, operating in Tarai have unified after their weeklong joint conference held in an undisclosed location across the border, in Bihar, India, Uresh Yadav writes in Republica from Janakpur.. A total of 13 outfits, including the Jaya Krishna Goit-led Akhil Tarai Mukti Morcha, Rajan Mukti’s Janatantrik Tarai Mukti Morcha, Nagraj’s Tarai Cobra, Prashant’s Tarai Rastriya Mukti Morcha, Jivan’s Madhes Mukti Tiger, took part in the meet. The Goit-led Akhil Tarai Mukti Morcha is however not in the new alliance. Goit had initially proposed a unity among the outfits under its own leadership, but the other group members rejected the idea. Then he put forth another proposal of maintaining working relations among themselves, which the outfits again turned down, prompting him to leave the meeting that ended Wednesday noon, signing an eight-point pact. The new group will be known by the name Janatantrik Tarai Mukti Morcha under the leadership of Rajan Mukti. It intends to disrupt the November 19 elections to the new Constituent Assembly. It has also branded Madhesi leaders such as Bijay Kumar Gachchhadar, Upendra Yadav, Mahantha Thakur and Rajendra Mahato—who participated in the last CA elections and subsequently held various public positions-- as ‘betrayers’ of the Madhes and warned them to remove party offices from across the Tarai belt. Nnnn