09-13-2009, 06:54 AM
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->'Chennai graduate' led armed outfit in Nepal
Kathmandu, Sep 8 : A 41-year-old civil engineer, who claims to have received his degree from India's Chennai city, has been arrested in Nepal for allegedly planning a series of explosions in four major cities with the avowed aim of reinstating Hinduism as the state religion.
Vinod Kumar Pandey, who was produced by Nepal Police in court in Biratnagar Tuesday, told his interrogators that he studied in the south Indian city and used the Internet to get knowhow about explosives.
Pandey was arrested Sunday from Biratnagar, located on the Indo-Nepal border, with explosives and ingredients used to make bombs.
He headed the Ranvir Sena, a shadowy outfit in Nepal that was involved in extortion, abduction and blasts in the Terai plains.
Police said the Sena, which is not linked to the armed organisation of landlords in India's Bihar state of the same name, was planning bomb attacks in Kathmandu, Biratnagar, Birgunj and Pokhara. It had also planned attacks against high-profile individuals, police said.
The long-haired, suave Pandey spoke fluent English and used the Internet to download information on how to make bombs. The rented house where he was caught was converted into a 'mini laboratory' to make explosives, police said.
He also masqueraded as a bona fide engineer, working with a constructor who had been contracted by Surya Nepal, ITC's subsidiary in Nepal, to erect a building in Biratnagar.
Pandey used aliases like Bhagirath Singh, Vajra Singh and Radguvar Singh. Police Superintendent Devendra Subedi said they are continuing investigations to see if he or the Sena have links with militant groups in India.
The Ranvir Sena claimed it was working to reinstate Hinduism as the state religion. Nepal, once the only Hindu kingdom in the world, became a secular republic after a historic election last year.
Pandey's arrest came a day after police arrested the chief of another underground militant Hindu organisation.
Ram Prasad Mainali, who headed the Nepal Defence Army (NDA), was arrested in neighbouring Jhapa district Saturday.
The NDA was responsible for attacks on two mosques and a Catholic church, killing at least seven people. <!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->Nepal arrests 'bombing mastermind'
Police in Nepal have arrested a man accused of masterminding a series of attacks on churches and mosques that have killed at least eight people in the last two years.
Ram Prasad Mainali, who authorities allege is the leader of the shadowy Nepal Defence Army (NDA), was arrested in the southeastern town of Biratnagar, the government said on Monday.
The NDA is a Hindu organisation that says it wants to restore Nepal's Hindu monarchy, abolished in 2008.
"Acting on a tip-off, we caught Mainali while hiding at one of his relative's houses," Devendra Subedi, chief of the Morang district police office, was quoted by the AFP news agency as saying.
"He has confessed to us that he masterminded a series of blasts in various churches and mosques killing at least eight people.
"We are investigating all his criminal activities in the past."
The NDA claimed responsibility for the bombing in May of a Catholic church in Kathmandu, the Nepali capital, that killed three people and an attack on a mosque in southern Nepal last year that also left three dead.
The group also said it carried out a bombing in Kathmandu in August at the headquarters of the Nepali Congress party, one of Nepal's main political parties.
No one was hurt in the attack, which caused only minor damage to the building.
A second bomb at the government's transportation department was disarmed successfully by police.
Nepal has been the scene of sporadic ethnic violence since a peace deal was reached between former rebel Maoists and the government in late 2006.
But there is little history of religious conflict in Nepal, where more than 80 per cent of the 27 million people are Hindu.
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/asia/200...1551138982.html<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Kathmandu, Sep 8 : A 41-year-old civil engineer, who claims to have received his degree from India's Chennai city, has been arrested in Nepal for allegedly planning a series of explosions in four major cities with the avowed aim of reinstating Hinduism as the state religion.
Vinod Kumar Pandey, who was produced by Nepal Police in court in Biratnagar Tuesday, told his interrogators that he studied in the south Indian city and used the Internet to get knowhow about explosives.
Pandey was arrested Sunday from Biratnagar, located on the Indo-Nepal border, with explosives and ingredients used to make bombs.
He headed the Ranvir Sena, a shadowy outfit in Nepal that was involved in extortion, abduction and blasts in the Terai plains.
Police said the Sena, which is not linked to the armed organisation of landlords in India's Bihar state of the same name, was planning bomb attacks in Kathmandu, Biratnagar, Birgunj and Pokhara. It had also planned attacks against high-profile individuals, police said.
The long-haired, suave Pandey spoke fluent English and used the Internet to download information on how to make bombs. The rented house where he was caught was converted into a 'mini laboratory' to make explosives, police said.
He also masqueraded as a bona fide engineer, working with a constructor who had been contracted by Surya Nepal, ITC's subsidiary in Nepal, to erect a building in Biratnagar.
Pandey used aliases like Bhagirath Singh, Vajra Singh and Radguvar Singh. Police Superintendent Devendra Subedi said they are continuing investigations to see if he or the Sena have links with militant groups in India.
The Ranvir Sena claimed it was working to reinstate Hinduism as the state religion. Nepal, once the only Hindu kingdom in the world, became a secular republic after a historic election last year.
Pandey's arrest came a day after police arrested the chief of another underground militant Hindu organisation.
Ram Prasad Mainali, who headed the Nepal Defence Army (NDA), was arrested in neighbouring Jhapa district Saturday.
The NDA was responsible for attacks on two mosques and a Catholic church, killing at least seven people. <!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->Nepal arrests 'bombing mastermind'
Police in Nepal have arrested a man accused of masterminding a series of attacks on churches and mosques that have killed at least eight people in the last two years.
Ram Prasad Mainali, who authorities allege is the leader of the shadowy Nepal Defence Army (NDA), was arrested in the southeastern town of Biratnagar, the government said on Monday.
The NDA is a Hindu organisation that says it wants to restore Nepal's Hindu monarchy, abolished in 2008.
"Acting on a tip-off, we caught Mainali while hiding at one of his relative's houses," Devendra Subedi, chief of the Morang district police office, was quoted by the AFP news agency as saying.
"He has confessed to us that he masterminded a series of blasts in various churches and mosques killing at least eight people.
"We are investigating all his criminal activities in the past."
The NDA claimed responsibility for the bombing in May of a Catholic church in Kathmandu, the Nepali capital, that killed three people and an attack on a mosque in southern Nepal last year that also left three dead.
The group also said it carried out a bombing in Kathmandu in August at the headquarters of the Nepali Congress party, one of Nepal's main political parties.
No one was hurt in the attack, which caused only minor damage to the building.
A second bomb at the government's transportation department was disarmed successfully by police.
Nepal has been the scene of sporadic ethnic violence since a peace deal was reached between former rebel Maoists and the government in late 2006.
But there is little history of religious conflict in Nepal, where more than 80 per cent of the 27 million people are Hindu.
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/asia/200...1551138982.html<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->