Kathmandu, September 13, 2006

The Maoist allegation that the government was ferrying arms and ammunition from across the border last night culminated in a day of rising tension, with Maoists organising protests in the form of chakka jams all over the country, including the capital.

However, the ceasefire code of conduct monitoring national committee team, after an on-the-spot observation today, said more than 30 vehicles brought to a company of the Nepal Army in Dhading’s Gajuri yesterday carried no weapons.

The eight-member team led by the coordinator of the committee, Dr Birendra Mishra, said they checked the vehicles but found no weapons. Member of the monitoring committee, Tara Nath Dahal, said no arms were spotted in those vehicles and added some spent bullet shells were found in one old truck.

Earlier, the Nepal Army had said that the transport vehicles which arrived in Gajuri barracks at 9:30 pm on Tuesday night were not meant for war purposes. However, the Maoist cadres continued nationwide demonstrations throughout the day.

In Pokhara, the Maoists parked scores of vehicles in the middle of the road at Prithvi Chowk, Lakeside, Amar Singh Chowk and the highway.

Septuagenarian back in Thamel after 51 years

Seventy-seven-year-old Bhavani Thapa was surprised when she visited Thamel, where she lived for 10 years, after a break of 51 years. “Thamel, where I lived for 10 years, has changed.

There are buildings and gullies all around, enough to leave me clueless,” said Thapa, who has come here all the way from India to see her relatives.

Her story begins with a flashback of the year 1955, when she, accompanied by PY Joseph, an Indian national from Cochin, had left Nepal for Patna. Joseph had worked as a member of the Indian technical team to build an airport in Kathmandu.

“I was 23 when I met Joseph in 1952. We were waiting for a relative, who was supposed to come from Calcutta.

The flight got delayed and we came across staffers of the airport,” Bhavani told The Himalayan Times, adding that Joseph and his colleagues became family friends with the Thapas and used to visit the Thapa household regularly.

“I used to live with my mother Hem Kumari Thapa, elder brother Ram Sharan Thapa, who was in the Army then, and his wife Nanda Kumari, and their four sons Radheshyam, Mohan, Janak and Sushil,” said Bhavani, adding that her father, Nayan Bahadur Thapa, had died when she was five-months-old.

“My elder brother was more like my father and I used to call him Bua” she said.