Nepal Maoists arson near border

The Nepal border at Uttarakhand becomes tense after Maoists cross over to the Indian side, reports Utpal Parashar and Deep Joshi.

The Nepal border at Uttarakhand became tense on Friday after Maoists crossed over to the Indian side and damaged property. The Maoists of the Young Communist League had tried unfurling red flags on the no man’s land between India and Nepal on December 25, but were stopped.

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Although security was believed to have been stepped up at the porous border after the incident, they still crossed over near Tanakpur in Champawat district on Friday.

According to some reports, the Maoists damaged public property, including a board of the National Hydroelectric Power Corporation near the Sharda Dam project, two kilometres from Tanakpur.

“We have unconfirmed reports that two security personnel on duty were injured while trying to push the activists back into Nepal,” said Tanakpur SDM Jivan Singh Naganiyal.

He said the activists had come to Brahamadev town to felicitate one of their comrades, who was injured in stone-throwing involving Akhil Bhartiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) activists on January 1 during an anti-Nepal demonstration near Tanakpur.

A source said that lax security along the border near Brahamadev had allowed the Maoists to enter India without detection. Following the December 25 attempt by the Maoists, to allegedly reclaim some border areas that they said were illegally occupied by India, the Hindu Jagran Manch and ABVP workers also tried to unfurl the Tricolour in the border town of Banbasa twice this week. They, too, were prevented from carrying out their plans.

Although Chief Minister B.C. Khanduri termed the threat from Nepal’s Maoists as serious, he said the recent incidents could be an attempt by parties like the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) to grab attention ahead of polls in that country.