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 KOLKATA 00000109 002 OF 002 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