Pakistan ready to provide Nepal with arms,
anti-terror training
KATHMANDU, Friday (AFP) Pakistan is ready to provide arms and
counter-insurgency training to help Nepal face down an increasingly
bloody Maoist revolt, Islamabad's outgoing ambassador here Zamir Akram
said in an interview published Friday.
"We are ready to share our experience and, hopefully, this will help
Nepal," Akram said in the interview with the Rising Nepal.
"So, we are ready to help in whatever way we can. Pakistan is also
facing terrorist threats on our western border.
We have developed some kind of expertise, especially in the use of
high-tech equipment by the terrorists," he told the state-run English
daily. "We, within the SAARC level and at the bilateral level, have
offered an exchange of information," he added, referring to the South
Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) which groups
Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka.
"We have offered possibilities of training. We are also ready to
provide arms if that is required by Nepal." Last month, India and
Britain suspended military aid to Nepal after King Gyanendra seized
power, firing the government, imposing emergency rule and vowing to
tackle the Maoist uprising that has claimed 11,000 lives since 1996.
The United States is mulling similar action amid reports Gyanendra is
considering turning to neighbouring China for arms if the flow of
weaponry to help Nepal's ill-equipped army battle the Maoist rebels
dries up.
Akram declined to be drawn into commenting on the king's power grab,
saying it was an "internal" matter and that Pakistan believed in
"non-interference".
"We believe the issue here is peace and security. We believe that the
people of Nepal and all the political forces that are operating need to
cooperate with each other to find a solution by themselves. This is how
we look at it, and we feel the people and the government of Nepal are
capable of finding the solution," Akram said.
India has made a similar call, urging Gyanendra to reconcile his
differences with Nepal's political parties to help stem the rapidly
"deteriorating" economic and security situation in the kingdom.
India, which shares a nearly 1,600-kilometer (990-mile) border with
Nepal, is anxious for an end to the political crisis.
It is concerned that Maoist violence could spill into Indian states
where radical leftist groups are powerful. |