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Rediff.com  » News » ISI had offered to help Nepal Maoists: Prachanda

ISI had offered to help Nepal Maoists: Prachanda

November 20, 2006 12:39 IST
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Nepal's Maoists have rejected offer of help by Pakistan's ISI, saying it would not be in the interest of country, their leader Prachanda has said.

Replying a question after his return from India on Sunday night, Maoist chief Prachanda said that Pakistani intelligence agency ISI had offered help to his party through "direct or indirect" means, but he had turned down the proposal as it would not be in the interest of Nepal and the Nepalese people.

Prachanda, who met former Prime Ministers I K Gujral and V P Singh besides other prominent leaders during his visit to Delhi to attend the Hindustan Times leadership summit, said he held extensive talks with Indian politicians and intellectuals and found that they had adequate knowledge about the people's movement in Nepal, and were in favour of the peace process in the Himalayan country.

Talking to reporters at the Tribhuvan International Airport in Kathmandu, he said Indian leaders were mainly focussed on making the peace talks in his country successful.

"I found the Indian leadership very positive towards Nepal's peace process and democracy and they would accept any verdict the Nepalese would deliver through the constituent assembly polls on the future of monarchy," Prachanda said.

The rebel chief, whose real name of Pushpa Kamal Dahal, claimed that the visit succeeded in overcoming the confusion about the Maoists and the motive of the insurgency, the party waged in 1996.

"I had read of revolutions in history books but today, I have been able to see the revolution in real life in Nepal," Prachanda, quoted former Prime Minister I K Gujral as telling him.

The 1950 treaty peace and friendship between Nepal and India should be reviewed as it is "controversial", he added.

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