KATHMANDU, MARCH 3

A recent report by the US Department of State has flagged 'significant threat' of non-Nepali international terrorist groups using Nepal as a transit/staging point or soft target.

The report titled 'Country Reports on Terrorism 2021', which was publicised a few days ago, has said that airport security controls in Nepal are 'weak and inadequate'.

According to the scathing report, Kathmandu's Tribhuvan International Airport does not prescreen passengers, and landing data are not entered into any database.

Physical security checks of passengers are rudimentary.

There is no travel document security, and the airport lacks ultraviolet lights to examine documents.

The Special Bureau of the Nepal Police assigns approximately 10 personnel to the airport and approximately 15 officers to its IN- TERPOL office, which is located at Nepal Police headquarters, the report has mentioned.

"The INTERPOL office has no designated personnel at Tribhuvan International Airport, but communication between INTER- POL and airport personnel does occur. INTERPOL notices are acted on and maintained in a database, but passengers are not routinely screened through this database."

The report further says that the security and immigration officials are generally responsive to US requests for information, 'but often have little information to provide'.

The report has also expressed concerns over Nepal's porous border with India. "There are some checkpoints along the 1,000-mile border, but these lack sufficient security controls and are sometimes staffed by only one immigration official."

Most people crossing the border are neither stopped nor checked, and the crossing points can easily be circumvented to avoid scrutiny, the report says.

"The primary constraints preventing more effective border-control capability are a lack of resources, information stovepiping among security sector and civilian agencies, and a lack of political will to deploy a more robust approach."

As per the report, the security services lack the personnel, technology, databases, basic equipment, and often electrical power, to provide effective border control.

Additional constraints include lack of training and widespread corruption.

Nepal does not employ strategic communications to counter violent extremism, the report says. There are no government or civil society programmes in Nepal to counter recruitment into violent extremism or rehabilitate former violent extremists. The government generally does not view violent extremism, specifically violent extremist ideology originating from conflict/instability in the Middle East, as a significant threat in Nepal.

"A more significant threat is non-Nepali international terrorist groups using Nepal as a transit/ staging point or soft target."

A version of this article appears in the print on March 4, 2023, of The Himalayan Times.