Amid reports of taking into control hundreds of buses, micro-buses and trucks to ferry their cadres to the capital, the CPN (Maoist) has said preparation for a huge mass meeting and rally in Kathmandu on Friday has been completed.

Maoist leaders also denied reports that they have taken hundreds of vehicles into their control to ferry their cadres.

Talking to reporters in Kathmandu on Thursday, spokesman of the CPN (Maoist) and convener of the Maoist negotiating team, Krishna Bahadur Mahara, said Friday’s rally would be peaceful and that unarmed members of the ‘people’s liberation army’ would also take part in the meeting. He said members of the Maoist negotiating team would address the meeting.

He, however, denied reports that Maoist supremo, Prachanda alias Pushpa Kamal Dahal, and another senior leader, Dr. Baburam Bhattarai, were scheduled to address the meeting.

Reports said the top leaders duo was seen at Pathari of eastern district of Morang on Wednesday. Earlier, the Maoist supremo had address his cadres in Makwanpur district adjoining Kathmandu valley and had also spent a night with his father, Muktiram Dahal.

Maoist leaders have claimed that Friday’s rally would be one of the largest in the capital. The organizers said over 500,000 people will take part in tomorrow’s meeting at the Open Air Theatre at Tundikhel—at the heart of the capital.

A Maoist cadre in the western district of Kaski told Nepalnews over phone that they were all set to march towards capital. “We plan to arrive in Kathmandu by 12:00 p. m. on Friday,” he said. Reports say Maoist cadres have “managed” dozens of buses along the East-West highway to ferry their cadres to Kathmandu.

BBC Nepali Service reported Thursday that the rebels have taken hundreds of vehicles from Chitwan and surrounding districts into their control to ferry their cadres. Chief of Maoists’ “people’s government” in Chitwan, however, refuted such reports and said that his party had “negotiated” with local transport operators to provide them vehicles “if they were vacant.”

In Kathmandu, Maoist cadres in red T-shirts were seen distributing pamphlets urging people to join Friday’s mass meeting. They have urged local lodges to accommodate their cadres and restaurants to feed them at concessional rates.

Thousands of Maoist cadres have already arrived in Kathmandu from neighbouring districts to take part in Friday’s mass meeting. Nepalnews has learnt that the organizers have urged various government and semi-government offices in Kathmandu to provide their premises to accommodate their cadres. A senior official with one of the government owned corporations at Balaju in Kathmandu told Nepalnews that the organizers have urged them to provide its premises to accommodate as much as five thousand cadres.

“By this evening, Maoist cadres have erected their tent within the premises of our Corporation, have brought supplies of drinking water through tankers,” he said.

The city has been pasted red with the Maoist banners carrying the photo of Maoist supremo, Prachanda. Janadesh weekly, the Maoist mouthpiece, reported Tuesday that five thousand volunteers and two hundred health personnel would be mobilised on Friday to manage the mass meeting.

National Human Rights Commission said it would monitor the mass meeting being organized by the Maoists on Friday.

This will be the first mass meeting being organized by the CPN (Maoist) in the capital after the month-old ceasefire. The Maoists had earlier organized huge mass meetings in Biratnagar, Janakpur, Pokhara and Dang. They have also planned huge rallies in Dhangadhi and Nepalgunj next week.