[12
Aug, 2006 1417hrs IST
 IANS]
The
Times of India Online
KATHMANDU: The top two leaders of
Nepal's Maoist party are currently in eastern India, media
reports in Kathmandu said. Pushpa Kamal Dahal, alias
Prachanda, chairman of the Communist Party of Nepal-Maoist
as well as supreme commander of the rebels' guerrilla army,
the People's Liberation Army, and his deputy,
architect-turned rebel Baburam Bhattarai, arrived in
Siliguri town in West Bengal Friday evening, Nepali
newspapers said on Saturday.
After a brief halt in Jhapa district
in eastern Nepal, on the India-Nepal border, where they held
consultations with party leaders, the rebel leaders headed
for Siliguri. Accompanying them are senior leader of the
formerly outlawed party, Gauri Shankar Khadka, as well as
Prachanda's son Prakash, and wife Sita.
The Maoist leaders could meet a senior
party leader Mohan Vaidya, who is currently imprisoned in
Siliguri, Nepal's official media said. Vaidya was arrested
in Siliguri about two years ago when he had gone for an eye
operation.
Reports said that the rebel leaders
could be heading for India to meet Sitaram Yechuri,
politburo member of the Communist Party of India (Marxist).
Till last year, Maoist leaders had to travel under secrecy
in India since they were considered a terrorist organisation
by the Indian government.
However, the viewpoint changed last
year, after King Gyanendra seized power by force, leading to
escalation in violence due to the political turmoil there.
India is widely perceived as having brokered an agreement
between the Maoists and the opposition parties, resulting in
a united movement against the king that forced him to step
down this year.
Since then, the new government of
Nepal has withdrawn the terrorist tag on the Maoists and
begun peace negotiations with them. The rebels could be
joining an interim government. Recently, the Maoists stepped
up a diplomatic lobbying, meeting the Indian ambassador to
Nepal Shiv Shankar Mukherjee and other diplomats in
Kathmandu.
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