M A I N   N E W S

Maoists warn India
Swati Vashishtha
Tribune News Service

Dehra Dun, September 15
The police and security agencies have been put on high alert along the Indo-Nepal border after Maoist rebels threatened the Indian Government with violence through human bombs if it offers Nepal any help to fight against them. Through handwritten posters put up in the border town of Jhulaghat in Pithoragarh district, the Maoists have warned the government against helping Nepal to fight Maoist terror.

The police yesterday spotted two such posters in the border town, which was in the news last month after Maoists injured an Indian child in firing.

The police has stepped up security in the border areas in view of the threat, said DGP Kanchan Choudhary Bhattacharya. Some of the posts had been relocated at the border to ensure better vigilance.

Reacting sharply to New Delhi’s assurances of help to fight Maoist terror to Nepal’s Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba on his recent visit to India, the Maoists have said such interference would not be tolerated. The posters found pasted at two places are in Nepalese and the text reads that the Maoists have nothing against India as long as India does not interfere in their struggle against the fascist forces of Nepal, said Pithoragarh District Magistrate Gopal Krishna Dwivedi.

However, if India helps Nepal fight against the Maoists, violence would spill over through human bombs, the posters read. The Maoists have also apologised for the firing incident in which an Indian child was injured a fortnight back, saying that the firing was actually targeted at a customs officer in Nepal, officials said.

The government has planned immediate pro-active measures like intelligence sharing which would include swapping important information with security agencies across the border, apart from strengthening the internal security agencies. The police and the PAC have set up three new posts in Almora district while local security cells in the villages are in the process of being constituted, officials said.