How Kathmandu becomes hub for organised crime

How Kathmandu becomes hub for organised crime
SWATI CHATURVEDI

NEW DELHI, DECEMBER 25: The Kathmandu connection, buried in the yellowing documents of Indian officialdom for years, came calling to jostle the nation today with the hijacking of the Indian Airlines hijacking.

Kathmandu has been a haven for terrorists from the the ISI and the Kashmiri terrorists to the Naga militants and almost everyone on the who's who of India's list of separatists had set up base there.

Apart from the presence of several militant outfits that have base in Nepal's capital, what makes the city more vulnerable as far as India's security is concerned is the easy access at the airport. For Indian citizens or those who pose as Indian citizens, almost no travel document is required to board international flights.

The Crisis Management Group (CMG) set up to deal with hijacking led by Cabinet Secretary Prabhat Kumar got a hurriedly prepared pointer from the Research & Analysis Wing. It begins: ``Tribhuvan (airport in Kathmandu) is a porous airport. You can buy and sell anything there.'' It goes on to say that various Jammu & Kashmir militant groups including Lashkar e Toiba and ISI agents need no haven as the ``Pakistani embassy in Thamel is the staging post of actions against us.''

That this is not just the usual official overreaction after being overtaken by events is evident in the nearly 100 kg of RDX seized from Nepal this year. As many as 22 Kashmiri terrorists were arrested from Kathmandu just in the past six months.

The Kathmandu connection had first cropped up about six years ago with reports of smuggling, gun-running and counterfeit currency rackets. However, it was soon regarded as a ``high-risk'' area for the Indian intelligence when they realised that the ISI was ``leveraging'' members of various types of syndicates and mafia for its operations.

Take the case of Mirza Dilshad Baig who was a minister in the Nepal cabinet while being Dawood Ibrahim's pointman in Nepal. Indian officials repeatedly raised his dossier with the Nepal government but nothing happened. Baig died a year ago but remained a member of the establishment of good standing.RAW officials say that to counter the ISI threat they had tried to prevail upon the Nepal government to open all diplomatic baggage. The idea was shot down. Says an official who earlier worked in Kathmandu High Commission: ``We were horribly right. Which airport in the world is going to allow passengers armed with AK 47s and grenades and pistols on to the aircraft?''

The RAW brief to the CMG also mentions several other ``security lapses'' committed by the ISI at the airport such as the smuggling of weapons by a Pakistani diplomat in May 1996. This incident led to the controversial suggestion to open diplomatic baggage.

The bi-weekly PIA flight from Karachi to Kathmandu is viewed with great suspicion by Indian officials. Vivid tales of how smuggling of explosives, weapons and gold goes on openly in the flights abound.

Two years ago there was a spate of arrests of Kashmiri terrorists who were on their way for training in Karachi in Kathmandu. Even in the Gulshan Kumar murder case, the Kathmandu connection popped up as the chief suspect Vikram Wahi was traced to Nepal. After a raid was conducted, his beheaded body was found on the border.

Among the ISI-backed ones, Lashkar-e-Toiba has emerged as the major terrorist group with strong connections there. Senior officials who formed part of a delegation to Nepal say that Kathmandu expressed its helplessness to take on the ISI. Even in the Babloo Srivastava case senior officials point out that Nepal was ``fairly reluctant to comply.''