New Delhi, July 10, 2007 Indian External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee has said the Maoists should abide by the comprehensive peace treaty and lay down arms. He said this at a meeting today with Minister for Peace and Reconstruction Ram Chandra Poudel, NC leaders Chakra Banstola and Dr Shekhar Koirala, who are here to attend the funeral ceremony of late Indian prime minister Chandra Shekhar. Banstola told this daily that the discussions also covered timely CA polls, Indian assistance for the polls and border security. Regarding the law and order security, the Maoists’ affiliated YCL activities, Mukherjee was quoted by Banstola as saying: “The Maoists should abide by the comprehensive peace treaty and lay down arms”. Banstola quoting Minister Mukherjee as saying: “Necessary steps should be taken for bolstering peace and security. The CA polls should not be deferred at any cost.” Stressing the importance of eight-party unity, Mukherjee said it should not break, adding that India is ready to extend assistance for maintaining peace and security. “Ourdiscussions covered assistance of technical equipments for strengthening capability of Nepal police to facilitate the CA polls,” he said. At this, Mukherjee was positive for assistance, Banstola said. Lesser-known group claims to have killed scribe Dhangadhi, July 10, 2007 A group calling itself the ‘National Republican Army Nepal’ (NRAN) has claimed that it has killed a Kanchanpur-based journalist, Prakash Thakuri, who was abducted last Thursday. Five persons, identifying themselves as cadres of the Young Communist League (YCL), had abducted Thakuri from Bhansi in Mahendranagar-1 while he was heading for the market in the evening. The NRAN on Sunday sent e-mails to Kailali-based journalists and owned up the abduction and said Thakuri had been killed when trying to flee. The group said it abducted Thakuri as he was involved in publishing a proking news story. The e-mail statement, signed by NRAN spokesperson Krantideep, however, does not say where Thakuri was killed. His body has also not been found. The NRAN was formed for an armed struggle for a republic and “our major objective is to eliminate those traitors, brokers and agents of royalists,” the statement said. Meanwhile, in Mahendranagar, the secretary of the Maoist-affiliated All Nepal People’s Health Workers’ Association (Kanchanpur chapter), Pomlal Sharma, today said YCL cadres, including Nikhil, Jagat Chhetri and Chandrakanta and led by a Maoist leader, ‘Dilip’, had abducted Thakuri.