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Nepal Maoists agree to hand over weapons to special committee

IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency

New Delhi, Sept 1, IRNA -- The Maoist party in Nepal agreed to hand over the keys of its armed wing's arsenal to a special committee Thursday, days after the former rebels returned to power in the nascent republic.

Jaya Prakash Gupta, president of Madhesi Peoples Rights Forum (Republican), who was present at the meeting told pti Wednesday that the Maoist side would hand over the keys of the containers of their weapons to the Special Committee on Thursday.

Emerging from the first ever meeting of the Special Committee held after Baburam Bhattarai's election as the Prime Minister, the committee member Ram Sharan Mahat said the meeting decided to direct its technical committee to fulfill the employee recruitment process, which has been stalled, for the regrouping of the ex-Maoist fighters at the earliest.

Some 19,200 fighters of the People Liberation Army (PLA) have been confined in seven cantonments and 21 sub-camps across the country with more than 3,400 weapons following the Compressive Peace Accord reached in 2006.

Before the prime ministerial elections, the Maoist party had announced a peace plan under which they have agreed to complete the task of handing over arms and managing combatants within one and a half month.

Earlier last week, the double security provided to some top Maoist leaders including Mohan Vaidya 'Kiran' were withdrawn as part of their commitment.

Now the Maoist leaders only have police security as they removed their own security personnel deployed to guard them.

The Special Committee is in charge of supervision, rehabilitation and integration of the PLA.

Earlier, during a meeting of major three parties Bhattarai had agreed to transfer the control of Maoist cantonments to the Special Committee officials and hand over the keys to the government.

Before the prime ministerial elections, the Maoist party had introduced a plan for the peace process if they would get to lead the new government.

One of the key sticking points in the peace plan has been the proposed integration of 19,000 former Maoist rebel fighters into the army, with military leaders and the Nepali Congress resisting the move.

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Islamic Republic News Agency/IRNA NewsCode: 30544841