Thousands of combatants, arms outside cantonment site: Prachanda
With the Maoists facing criticism for their 'low weapon count' during registration, Maoist chairman Prachanda has revealed that they have thousands of combatants and weapons outside the cantonments not registered with the UN.
Addressing a mass meeting in Baglung on Monday, Prachanda said that these combatants and weapons were not registered as they "couldn't meet United Nations standards" to be registered with the latter, reports the Kantipur Daily.
He further said that they are facing problems for the management of weapons that are not registered with the UN.
The Kantipur report further said Prachanda also disclosed that Maoists still have sufficient technical human resources outside the cantonments to launch "massive attacks" simultaneously at several places on a single night.
The report added the Maoist chairman also warned that they will launch streets protest and protest in the parliament for a republic set up if the elections of the constituent assembly was not announced soon.
"We launched our movement with just two 3-0-3 rifles and home-made weapons. Now we have registered the weapons as per UN instructions. However, thousands of weapons that we could not register as per the UN's requirements are still outside. We are facing problems with their storage," the Kantipur report quoted Maoist chairman as saying.
Earlier, addressing a mass meeting in Butwal Prachanda said, "…the rivers swept away our arms and fire burnt them down…" as people from every quarters of society raised questions about their intention of registering "very less" number of weapons in comparison to their combatants.
"Besides combatants staying inside the cantonments, we have a large number of weapons and skilled manpower who are able to make such weapons and launch simultaneous attacks at several places on a single night," Kantipur further quoted Maoist chairman Prachanda as saying. nepalnews.com pb Mar 13 07
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