Maoists begin anti-India stir

Kathmandu, Jan. 11: Ahead of the Indian external affairs minister, Mr S.M. Krishna’s first official visit to Nepal, former Maoist guerrillas on Monday kicked off an anti-India campaign, accusing the southern neighbour of grabbing Nepal’s territory.

The Maoist chief and former prime minister, Mr Pushpa Kamal Dahal Prachanda, led a protest rally in Kanchanpur district in far-west Nepal where the Maoists are condemning the Tanakpur barrage built on the Mahakali river by India, saying it gives undue irrigation facilities to the Indian side.

Mr Prachanda said his party would spearhead a campaign to save Nepal’s sovereignty since the current coalition government was being “manipulated by foreign powers”.

The former finance minister, Mr Baburam Bhattarai, is leading a similar rally in western Nepal where, according to Nepalis, Indians have encroached on a village called Susta.

The campaign against “Indian encroachment” will continue Tuesday with former Maoist defence

minister Ram Bahadur Thapa Badal and senior leader Narayan Kaji Shrestha taking out rallies in two other areas under dispute.

India and Nepal share an 1,800 km border and there are boundary disputes in almost 50 places.