| Rastafariya |
Posted
on 30-Mar-04 08:27 PM
Siliguri, March 30: A bandage strapped across his right eye, the 50-year-old master-strategist of the dreaded Nepal Communist Party (Maoist) looked anything but the top gun whose name was synonymous with terror in his strife-torn homeland.
Mohan Baidya, also known as Kiran, ranks third in the command structure of the NCP (Maoists) and carries a reward of $64,000 declared by the US for his capture. Kiran, who was arrested yesterday, was escorted under heavy security to the Siliguri subdivisional judicial magistrate’s court today.
Kiran was nabbed from Darjeeling More yesterday by central intelligence officials along with Narayan Bikram Pradhan, the treasurer of the year-old Nepalese National Democratic Front of India (NNDFI), following a tip-off that he was being sheltered by Maoist sympathisers in Pradhan Nagar.
Jalpaiguri superintendent of police Siddh Nath Gupta said: “We had formed a task force last week after learning that NNDFI leaders were sheltering the Maoists. We also had feedback on the Maoists trying to develop the Western Dooars area as a shelter.”
Along with self-styled commander-in-chief Puspa Kamal Dahal alias Prachanda, Baburam Bhattarai and Ram Bahadur Thapa alias Madan, Kiran is part of the four-member core-committee of the rebel army which is waging an armed struggle to overthrow the constitutional monarchy in the landlocked Himalayan kingdom.
In an exclusive interview to The Telegraph, on his way to the court, he said: “The sleuths of the intelligence bureau picked me up from Sunrise Nursing Home on March 28. I do not know what crime I have committed on Indian territory. Yes, there is an Interpol red alert against me but I had come to Siliguri to get a cataract operation done on my right eye,” he said.
Kiran is credited with having masterminded a series of armed attacks on the Royal Nepal Army barracks and police stations and dismantled several airstrips in the eastern districts of Sagarmatha, Koshi and Mechi.
He, however, admitted that the rebel outfit had been using the Siliguri corridor and neighbouring Darjeeling hills and parts of Sikkim for its activities.
“We have several safehouses in this region, which has helped us to procure arms from other Indian-based insurgent outfits operating in the northeastern states. We also use Siliguri for treatment of the injured cadre. There are several nursing homes which treat you without asking questions,” Kiran said.
Asked about arsenal of the Maoists, the rebel leader said: “The Royal Nepal Army is no match for us in ground-level combat. The only advantage they have over us is their airborne arsenal, including MI 17 helicopter gunships recently supplied to Nepal by India along with an array of state-of-the-art weapons.”
Lauding the police force at a news conference for capturing the Maoist leader, Darjeeling superintendent of police Rajeev Mishra said: “Baidya has been booked on several counts under the Indian Penal Code for waging war against the country and having links with banned militant outfits in India. The arrest of Pradhan has given credence to the possibility that the erstwhile Akhil Bharatiya Nepali Ekta Samaj, banned under Pota for direct links with the NCP(M), is still functional.”
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