PWG, MCC trained Maoists, admits ex-militant

January 22, 2004
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A high-level Maoist militant, who surrendered six months ago, publicly admitted on Thursday that “the Maoists were being trained by two Indian (terrorist) outfits, PWG and MCC, at least three times in Nepali territory.”

“PWG (People’s War Group) and MCC (Maoist Communist Centre) used to train us,” Maoists’ battalion commander Jaya Bahadur Gharti, 25, whom the Royal Nepali Army made public in a press meet, said.

According to him, PWG and MCC, which are banned in India, trained a batch of 17-18 Maoists for the first time in 2055 BS (five years ago).

The number of the second lot of the Maoists to receive military training from the two outfits were 70 to 80 in 2056/57 BS (two/three years ago), Gharti said.

“The last time we received such training was in 2058 BS (two years ago),” he said. “Around 150 of us received the training at that time.”

Fielding a query as to where the actual location of the training was, he said it was somewhere in Rolpa and other districts in western Nepal.

Commenting on his surrendering to the security forces, Gharti said he had some differences with his political commissar. “There are anomalies and high-handedness inside Maoist party,” he added.

He said he was involved in major Maoist attacks which were intensified during the emergency period. “I was in Maoist party for the last eight years,” he added.

He further claimed that Maoists’ military strength has remarkably come down. “There is split among the Maoists themselves,” he claimed.

He, at the same time, said, the proper solution to the Maoist problem cannot be the military action alone. “The Maoist problem should be solved by a holistic approach. Media has a vital role to play in this regard,” he said.

Gharti, as he admitted, was the commander of “Mangalsen First Battalion”, which had 750 militants under its wing. “Later on, the number decreased to 450 at the time when I surrendered,” he said.