Two senior government ministers returned from “a secret trip” to Khasa, a frontier town in the Tibet Autonomous Region of China on Friday, reports Kantipur daily.

They were accompanied by two central committee members of the ruling CPN (Maoist).

Reports said Defence Minister Ram Bahadur Thapa Badal, Information & Communication Minister Krishna Bahadur Mahara, Deputy Commander of People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Netra Bikram Chand and the Maoist lawmaker Jayapuri Gharti, crossed the border at Tatopani in ministerial vehicles, Thursday morning.

They spent that night at an undisclosed location across the border and returned the next day on Friday.

It has also been learnt that top military official at the Chinese Embassy in Kathmandu escorted the ministerial convoy.

The daily quoted eyewitnesses as saying that that the Chinese government officials received the Nepali ‘delegation’ upon reaching Tatopani at 12 noon on Thursday and took them to Khasa.

The two Maoist ministers reportedly left their security guards from the Nepal Army and Nepal Police on the Nepali side of the border before entering China.

Reports said that Badal and Chand were accompanied by their spouses and children, Mahara and Gharti, however, were travelling alone.

Minister Mahara has described the visit as “extremely personal”.

“We had gone there on a personal visit during the Tihar holidays,” Mahara told Kantipur daily, “this should not be thought as a political or an official visit.”

The visit comes amidst reports that the Chinese are providing military training to Maoist PLA commanders to ease the integration process of Maoist PLA into Nepal Army. nepalnews.com Nov 02 08