SUSPECTED NEPALI MAOISTS ATTACK VILLAGE IN INDIA

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 KOLKATA 000109

SIPDIS

SENSITIVE
SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: PGOV PTER PHUM IN NP
SUBJECT: SUSPECTED NEPALI MAOISTS ATTACK VILLAGE IN INDIA

REF: NEW DELHI 1424


1. (SBU) Summary: Violence from Nepal's Terai region is
spilling over to the neighboring Indian state of Bihar. On
March 31, about 200 suspected Nepali Maoists attacked a small
village block in the Sitamarhi district of North Bihar, killing
one security guard and injuring a dozen civilians. This latest
confrontation prompted the Bihar government to partially seal
off its 734-kilometer border with Nepal and to deploy more
forces to control movement across the porous international
border. The attack, in addition to providing the Nepali Maoists
weapons and ammunition, may also have been a warning to Madhesi
(Hindu Nepali residents who originate from Bihar in India)
sympathizers on the Indian side of the border who may be
supporting the Madhesis in their fight against the Maoists. End
Summary.


2. (SBU) On March 31, 200 suspected Nepali Maoists attacked a
police station, a local government office and a bank in Riga,
Bihar, located in the Sitamarhi district which borders Nepal. A
security guard was killed and half a dozen people injured. This
was the first Maoist attack in Sitamarhi, which is a sensitive
area because of its proximity to the Terai region in Nepal,
where there has been violence between ethnic Bihari Madhesis and
Nepali Maoists. Immediately after the attack, the Bihar
government moved state border forces into the area to seal off
and monitor portions of the Indo-Nepal border.


3. (SBU) According to media reports, the attack took local law
enforcement by surprise. Maoist guerrillas with their weapons
crossed into Riga using vegetable-laden carts as part of the
normal border traffic flow. The Maoists first surrounded the
small town and then one group attacked the local government
office; while another group engaged the police in a fire fight
for nearly an hour; a third attacked the bank and police
station. The Maoists managed to steal arms and ammunition from
the police station, but the robbery attempt failed. The Maoists
also destroyed a small bridge on the outskirts of Riga.


4. (SBU) Local Police Chief M.R. Nayak admitted, "I had no
intelligence inputs regarding the attack. There was no warning
of any threat of Maoist attack," but Bihar Home Department
officials blamed the attack on the withdrawal of ten companies
of the Central Reserve Police Force from the state by the
national government for the forthcoming Uttar Pradesh state
assembly elections.


5. (SBU) The apparently well-planned attack in Riga also may be
a warning from the Maoists to pro-Madhesi factions in Bihar.
There has been speculation about possible covert support for the
Madhesis in Nepal by Hindu fundamentalist groups. Journalist
Deepak Kumar (Protect),who works for "Outlook" magazine, told
Post that the Maoists have purportedly put together a hit-list
of hard-line Indian Hindu leaders who they believe are
supporting the Madhesi cause. Kumar added that Sewak Sanjay
Nath, a Hindu priest and leader of the Hindu Vaam Sena (a wing
of the ultra-right Vishwa Hindu Parishad),along with the head
priest and BJP Member of Parliament from Gorakhpur of the
Gorakhnath Temple in Uttar Pradesh, Yogi Adityanath, had met the
King of Nepal about two months ago. Says Kumar, "We heard that
they received some monetary help from the King of Nepal to help
fuel this movement. Even the Rashtriya Swayem Sewak Sangh (RSS)
chief Sudarshan wanted to raise funds for this, but he did not
get good response, so for the moment, RSS has backed-out from
this movement." (reftel).


6. (SBU) Although a Madhesi, Matrika Prasad Yadav, has been
appointed to a cabinet level position in the Nepal government,
it may not be enough to assuage Madhesi demands. Prof. Anil
Sinha, the leader of the Seema Jagran Manch -- another wing of
the RSS in Bihar -- told Post that even though Yadav had joined
the new cabinet in Nepal, the Madhesi movement would continue on
both sides of the border. "The movement to reinstate a Hindu
state in world's only Hindu kingdom may be slow or even stop for
a while but it can never be suppressed," said Sinha. Sinha
believed that rightists in the Indian government and right-wing
political parties are interested in supporting the Madhesis, but
cannot do so out of fear of energizing the Maoists by providing
them with an easy opposition to target.


7. (SBU) Comment: The attack in Riga presents a disturbing
prospect that the violence in Nepal's Terai region may bleed

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into Indian border areas, either because unguarded police
stations and banks in Bihar represent easy sources of weapons
and money for the Nepali Maoists, or as way of striking back at
Madhesi sympathizers in Bihar. Comments by local contacts also
seem to indicate a growing interest by Indian right-wing Hindu
groups to support Madhesi agitations in Nepal.
JARDINE