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| Saturday, 21 August 2004 |
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Nepal, India begin joint border operation against insurgents KATHMANDU, Friday (Xinhua,Reuters) Nepali and Indian security forces started "joint search operation" along the border to check possible movement of Nepalese anti-government guerrillas, The Kathmandu Post newspaper reported Friday. A joint meeting of security agencies of the two countries, held at the base camp of the Special Service Beaureu (SSB) of India near Sunauli Bazaar decided on the joint patrol, the independent English-language daily quoted Dhak Bahadur Karki, superintendent of the Nepal Police, as saying. This was the first ever joint meeting of security officials of the two countries, although the SSB forces have been monitoring the security along the border since it set up camps along the border some months ago, said Karki, who attended the meeting. The joint operation will focus mainly on ways to prevent arms smuggling into Nepal by the guerrillas, he noted. The focus areas include the border areas of Rupandehi, Kapilvastu and Nawalparasi districts in Nepal, as well as Maharajgunj, Siddarthanagar and Balarampur areas in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, he added. Meanwhile Maoist guerrillas set off a bomb at an empty police post near Kathmandu on Friday, police said, and the Nepali capital remained cut off by land for the third day due to a rebel blockade call. No one was injured in the early morning blast in the Kaushaltar area on Kathmandu's outskirts, a police officer told Reuters. He blamed the Maoists for the blast. It was the second bomb attack in the area around Kathmandu this week and is seen as a rebel strategy to scare residents and ensure that they do not violate the unprecedented blockade. Four bomb blasts, also blamed on the guerrillas, rocked Nepal's oldest luxury hotel, Soaltee Crowne Plaza, on Monday but again caused no injuries. Those blasts forced the hotel and nine other companies to shut down following rebel threats. Fear of attacks by the rebels, fighting since 1996 to topple Nepal's constitutional monarchy, has enforced the siege although the Maoists have not physically blocked highways or prevented vehicles from moving in and out of the hill-ringed capital. |
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