Nepal Police, APF to nab CPN cadres

Kathmandu, March 13

Nepal Police and Armed Police Force have issued high security alert across the country, following the government’s decision to ban Netra Bikram Chand-led Communist Party Nepal and its activities.

Both the security agencies told THT that since the Chand-led group had been outlawed, they had issued directives to all their units to arrest cadres of the Chand-led group if they tried to assemble, organise programmes or participate in peaceful rallies. Until now, Nepal Police had been taking action against only those cadres of the group who were involved in criminal activities.

NP Spokesperson Senior Superintendent of Police Uttam Raj Subedi said, “We have increased surveillance of the group.” He said police would arrest CPN cadres if they were found indulging in any suspicious activity.

Subedi, however, said police had not formed any special task force to deal with the security threat the Chand-led group could pose in the days ahead.

Spokesperson for APF Deputy Inspector General Suraj Kumar Shrestha said his office had issued high security alert in all its units in the 77 districts. “We’ll stop any activity that may be carried out in the name of CPN,” he added.

Shrestha said APF had already started mobilising its force to maintain peace and security in the country. “The APF personnel may open fire in self-defence.”

Nepal Police has arrested around 400 cadres of the Chand-led group in the last one year. According to police, most of them were released after interrogation but some were indicted.

Police said they had arrested at least 70 cadres of the CPN across the country after it owned up the blast outside Ncell office in Lalitpur on February 22, killing one person and injuring two.

Police added that they had seized light machine guns, short machine guns and M-16 rifles from CPN cadres across the country since February 22.

Subedi added that most of the weapons seized from the Chand-led group’s cadres were akin to those used by Maoist cadres during the decade-long insurgency.