Vice-chairman of the Unified Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) Baburam Bhattarai has said it is wrong to associate Nepali Maoists with the Indian Maoists.
“The attempt to associate us with the Indian Maoists’ movement is totally wrong,” Mr. Bhattarai told reporters on Wednesday. “It’s their [Indian Maoists] internal matter and we have no links whatsoever with them,” he claimed.
Recent media reports have pointed to such links. A Maoist leader, C.P. Gajurel, has also reportedly acknowledged these links. Mr. Bhattarai clarified that associating his party “in an unofficial way” with the Indian Maoists was “to create an atmosphere of intervention” and to create unnecessary doubts. He said his party wanted to better friendly ties with India.
Meanwhile, chairman of the Communist Party of Nepal (UML) Jhalanath Khanal, who returned from India on Wednesday, said here that India was not happy with Nepali Maoists’ activities. “Especially the expression that there is a link between the Nepali and the Indian Maoists has been taken with sensitivity there,” he said.
