Nepal Highlights

Indian Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee has asked Minister for External Affairs SM Krishna and State Minister for External Affairs Shashi Tharoor to vacate the expensive hotel suites they were occupying and shift into a government condominium allocated for ministers. The directive came after reports about Minister Krishna and State Minister Tharoor occupying expensive hotel rooms costing more than Rs 4000 each per day became public. Both the Minister and the State Ministers have defended media and political criticisms saying they had furnished the hotel bills from their personal sources. State Minister Tharoor has already vacated the expensive suite at Hotel Taj, New Delhi, while Minister Krishna is in the process of vacating it, reports say. Tharoor comes from a high-profile diplomatic background and Krishna is a former Chief Minister of Karnataka state.

Two different groups of policemen created a scene by engaging in a fist-fight in Birgunj on Monday, reports say. The fight between policemen in plain clothes going to Raxaul for Dashain shopping and those in duty in Inaharwa police post broke at about 5 pm, Monday after a debate between the two groups. Keshar Singh, a police constable working in Kathmandu and another police personnel were going towards Raxaul with two girls when volunteers of Maiti Nepal, an NGO involved in preventing girl trafficking, started interrogating Singh and his friend. The police on duty in the Inaharwa police post attacked Singh and his friend after the argument with Maiti Nepal volunteers grew. Parsa district police has detained the policemen involved in the incident for interrogation.

The Maoist affiliated People’s Liberation Army (PLA) has reshuffled the postings of 29 brigade commanders and promoted six senior deputies to the post brigade commanders, Nagarik daily reported. A meeting of the PLA general staff that concluded in Kathmandu Monday transferred the brigade commanders from the brigades in one division to the other. There are seven divisions and 29 brigades in the PLA. The third division based in Shaktikhor, Chitwan has five brigades, while the remaining six divisions have four brigades each. The PLA general staff meeting has also promoted six senior deputy brigade commanders to the post of brigade commanders. The positions had fallen vacant after the six erstwhile brigade commanders were promoted to the post of deputy division commanders a few months ago. The PLA had increased the number of deputy division commanders to 15 at that time. After the recent promotions, there are 41 brigade commanders with 29 heading the brigades, seven deployed in sev

Police have busted the headquarters of an underground armed outfit Gun For Peace (GFP) Ranvir Sena, arrested its kingpin and seized large amount of explosives from Biratnagar. Morang police made public Binod Kumar Pandey, 41, the vice-commander of the Sena and his accomplice Nabin Pandey, who were arrested on Sunday, amid a press conference in Biratnagar, Monday evening. Police said, Pandey had converted his rented apartment in Biratnagar into the group’s headquarter and a mini-lab for producing explosives. Police have seized 10 kg of ammunitions including 1.5 kg of gunpowder, two kg of sulfur, one kg of soda, one packet of boric acid, 500 grams of sodium sulphate, 500 gm each of potassium permanganate, potassium nitrate and potassium magnate, one packet of aluminum metal powder, 500 grams of ammonium nitrate, and iron rods and pipes from the lab. They have also recovered a revolver and five rounds of bullets. Police have also claimed, the Sena was planning a series of attack

Police have seized 5,655 grams of white heroin and arrested one person allegedly involved in an international drug ring from Kathmandu during a special operation it launched from August 21 to September 6. The Narcotics Drug Control Law Enforcement Unit (NDCLEU), Baneshwar had launched ‘Operation Disk’ based on the tip off that Nepal is being used as a transit point for drug supply. Initial investigations have shown, the white heroin produced in Afghanistan is brought to Nepal through land route by hiding it inside the various machineries and then flown to China and African countries under similar cover. Under the operation, police seized 816 gm of white heroin hidden in a special Metal Gear Disk that was being transported to Swaziland on August 21. On September 1, 830 gm of white heroin was seized under a similar cover and one person was arrested in connection with the drug supply from Kalanki, Kathmandu. The arrested is Mahendra Giri, 28, of Shripur VDC, Kanchanpur district.