Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala
(File photo)

In what has come as an interesting revelation, a senior commander of the Maoist armed forces has said the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) of the CPN (Maoist) stands ready to follow orders from Nepali Congress president and Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala.

Addressing a huge mass meeting organized at the Open Air Theatre at Tundikhel in the Nepali capital on Friday, Deputy Commander of the PLA, Comrade Prabhaker alias Janardan Sharma, said the PLA was ready to follow orders of Nepali Congress president and premier G P Koirala.

‘’People have given Koirala a historic charge of making a new Nepal, said Prabhaker adding, So, I urge him not to hesitate in taking bold steps.’’ He did not elaborate.

Interestingly, it was Koirala who resigned from the post of Prime Minister in 2001 after the then Royal Nepalese Army reportedly refused to pursue Maoist rebels when they raided and abducted over 90 policemen from Holier police post in Rolpa district. Koirala, however, played a crucial role in inking the 12-point memorandum of understanding between the SPA and the CPN (Maoist) in the Indian capital in November last year.

The senior Maoist leader, who appeared in civilian dress to address the meeting, said the PLA and Maoist militia stood ready to take charge of security in Kathmandu if the army and police didn’t obey the orders of the Seven Party Alliance government. ‘We won’t let anarchy prevail in the city streets, whatever the cost,’’ he added.

Deputy Commander of the PLA, Comrade Prabhaker alias Janardan Sharma (Photo source : annapurnapost.com)
Prabhaker, who leads the western central command of the Maoist PLA, said he had brought with him the message of peace from the Maoist supremo, Prachanda. ‘’PLA is a politically indoctrinated army and is always ready to obey the party’s orders,’’ said Prabhaker. He further clarified that the PLA was ready to accept any international supervision or monitoring (during Constituent Assembly elections) for the sake of peace in the country.

Prabhaker said his party was committed to turn Nepal into a people’s republic with minimum bloodshed. He said his Maoist armed forces had arrived at as close as Thankot (a major land route to the capital) but did not venture to march into the capital to avoid bloodshed. ‘’We want to capture Narayanhiti palace in a peaceful way through Constituent Assembly elections, not in a violent way,’’ he added.

Addressing the Friday’s massive meet, a member of the Maoist negotiating team and central committee member of the CPN (Maoist), Dinanath Sharma, said his party would remain amid the people (and not return to jungle) even if the peace negotiations with the government failed. He further said elements who wanted to spoil the negotiations should be pushed aside by force.

A woman leader and central committee member of the CPN (Maoist), Ms. Pampha Bhusal, said her party had come forward with a message of peace since it believed in the use of as less bullets as possible.

Though top Maoist leaders, Prachanda and Dr. Baburam Bhattarai, were not present in the mass meeting, some one dozen Maoist leaders were present in it.

The organizer of Friday’s mass meeting, chief of the eastern central command of the CPN (Maoist), Ananta alias Barshaman Pun, did not appear publicly at the meeting though he was spotted issuing directives to the guerillas of Bethan, Pratap and Basu Memorial Brigade—who had be volunteering at the meeting unarmed and in civilian dresses—to maintain order at the huge mass meeting, according to reports.