UK for int’l military aid for Nepal

KOL Report

LONDON, June 21 - United Kingdom has signaled that it is increasingly concerned about the security situation in Nepal and has urged greater international military aid, adding that Nepal’s struggle against Maoist insurgents should be seen as part of the wider war against terrorism, agencies have reported.

Speaking at the start of a two-day international conference in London on ways to help the Nepali Government, British Foreign Office Minister Mike O’Brien said that though conditions in the Himalayan kingdom have deteriorated alarmingly in the last few months, there was no evidence to link Nepal’s militants to Al-Qaida or any other external terrorist organization so far.

Nonetheless he said Britain now saw the problem as part of the wider global war against terrorism and was urging other countries to join its efforts to help the Nepal Government.

Already Britain has increased its development aid to Nepal from about $29m last year to $40m this year. But more significantly, military aid to include training, equipment and logistics is to be boosted from $1million to $10million this year.

But there is clearly considerable concern among British officials that Nepal’s fragile democracy, already shaken by the massacre of its royal family exactly a year ago this week, may be not be able to survive without some outside gestures of support.

Officials from the US, Russia, China, India, Australia and several European countries are attending the London conference. (sjs)

India to deploy more army on Nepal-India border

KOL Report

GULARIYA, June 21 - Thousands of soldiers from the Secret Service Bureau of Indian Army will be deployed along the open Nepal-India borders very soon, a high-officer of the Border Police Force (BPF) said.

“There will be an Indian Army Post, under central government of India, in every 5 to 10 km distance of Nepal India border. Each post will have around 50 soldiers along with a doctor equipped with modern communication tools.

“After the arrival of the army, the BPF, now under the Uttar Pradesh Government would be transferred elsewhere,” said the source.

They will be deployed in posts at Kartaniyaghat, Nishangadha, Mirtiha, Bichhiya and Chitlahawa of Baharaich district of UP.

Ram Adhar Yadav, an inspector of BPF said that the UP government started deploying the army at the border area since 1997 April 19.

The source has not cleared whether the Indian army would behave Nepali citizens normally or not.