Nepal emerging safe haven for NE ultras

NEW DELHI, April 15: Even as growing activities of Pakistan's ISI from Nepalese soil are causing security concern for India, the Himalayan Kingdom has emerged as a safe haven for the militant groups from the Northeast, reports PTI. Blessed with logistic support from Pakistan's ISI, the NSCN(IM) leaders Isak Chishi Swu and Thuingaleng Muivah had been regular visitors to Kathmandu since 1992 and pursuing their activities, Intelligence sources said here. The sources said this potent Naga group had been sending its recruits for training at an institute, near Lalitpur. The NSCN(IM) is also reported to have nexus with local political outfits, especially ultra-Left ones. Similarly, David Ward, a London-based Briton who has 'volunteered' to work for an organisation called 'Naga Vigil' is said to be a regular visitor to Kathmandu for raising funds. Ward is known for his liasioning with Pakistani officials in Islamabad and elsewhere. According to a recent account, a group of 17 Naga insurgents crossed over to Nepal from India at Panitanki-Kakarbhitta border near Siliguri last year. The group on reaching Kathmandu with Bangladeshi passports reportedly checked into a popular hotel and then headed towards China. Moreover, the on-going anti-national activities by a section of dissident Bhutanese has compelled a large number of southern Bhutanese to take shelter in the eastern part of Nepal. This has provided a golden opportunity for ULFA and other Northeast groups to mingle with Bhutanese and take shelter in refugee camps especially in the wake of Army crackdown in Assam and other north eastern States. Taking advantage of the situation on the eastern border of Nepal, ULFA has also managed to establish its transit camps at Illam, Jhapa, Tapelgunj and Panchtar in Nepal. ULFA and NDFB have also been procuring consignments of arms and ammunition via this Nepal corridor. In fact, analysts argue that with no passport or visa required, Nepal has been the easiest and safest corridor for anyone who wants to use the land for any kind of anti-India subversive activities. Pakistan has been really exploiting it well. The sources suggest that most insurgent groups work in tandem with Pakistani mercenaries in Kathmandu. It is through Kathmandu that Northeast militant groups including National Liberation Front of Twipra (NLFT) gather funds and 'then start operation in countries like Bhutan and Bangladesh'. The sources say that seizure of a huge quantity of explosives from Pakistani diplomat Mohammad Arshad Cheema's residence at Kathmandu is just a tip of the iceberg of Islamabad's espionage, subversion and psychological warfare against India mounted from Nepalese soil. It was in the eighties that Pakistan's ISI started making moves and President Gen Zia-ul-Haq launched his long-term anti-India disruptive scheme 'Operation Topac'. With acute poverty and yawning gap between haves and have nots, there was enough space for ISI to chip in with its purse open and establish a foothold in the Himalayan Kingdom. Sources said that ISI has able to create enough 'pro-Pakistani and anti-India public opinion on important issues like Kashmir and nuclear tests in Nepal' and has even manipulated the local press. The Hrithik Roshan controversy last winter and violence concerning anti-Nepal remarks, which he never made, was a testimony to this fact.