Chitwan, January 24:

Verification of the Maoist People’s Liberation Army (PLA) soldiers, which got underway last Wednesday in the PLA’s third division headquarters in Chitwan, came to a halt this afternoon. Maoist division commander Bibidha said: “The PLA soldiers’ verification came to a halt as we were out of the camp due to our works and chief of the UN monitoring team was also out.” The verification process will resume by Friday, he said.

The UN team had arrived here with logistics on January 15. Of the total 6,100 PLA soldiers, around 5,000 have been verified till date. “An agreement has been reached to start arms verification and locking up processes after completing the PLA’s verification,” said Bibidha.