mikeldunham

Death Rate for Nepali Workers Reaches Record High in Qatar

January 30, 2010

 

According to a new report released by MigrantRights.org, Qatar, the rapidly developing Gulf state, “is becoming a death chamber for Nepali workers, with the number of Nepalis dying in Qatar increasing in the last three years.”

Expatriate workers are a crucial part of the fabric of Gulf society and economy, where they make up to 80% of the population in some states. While many work in white-collar jobs or are successful businessmen and highly skilled professionals, the majority of foreigners working in the Gulf are part of the manual labor workforce. They are also employed as domestic servants and drivers. By and large, individual employers are not held accountable for their treatment of Nepalis.

Around 217 Nepalis working in the country lost their lives in 2009, Nepal’s ambassador to Qatar, Dr Surya Nath Mishra, announced recently. “This is a matter of serious concern,” he said, adding that a new mechanism needs to be developed to reduce the risks of workers in Qatar. A total of 175 Nepalis died in Qatar in 2008.

As per data at the Nepali embassy in Doha, 40 Nepalis died of traffic-related accidents, 23 died at the work site, 14 died of drowning, including 12 in a July 2009 boat tragedy. Nine Nepali workers committed suicide.

 

 

 

 

 

Of the 162 deaths in 2007, 103 were due to cardiac arrest. Of the 143 workers who died in 2006, myocardial infarction claimed the lives of 72.

In spite of the high risks, Nepalis – particularly non-skilled workers -- scramble to get jobs in Qatar. The remittances they send home are in important source of revenue for their impoverished families in Nepal.                      

Salaries have increased along with the risks. The Nepali embassy in Doha increased the minimum salary to be paid for Nepali workers in Qatar by at least 200 Riyals (Rs 4000) per month effective January 1, 2010.

The embassy has increased the minimum salary of unskilled workers such as laborers, cleaners, helpers, watchmen, and office boys to 800 Riyals (Rs 16000) per month from the existing 600 Riyals.

Likewise, the embassy has stipulated the minimum salary of semi-skilled workers from 800 (Rs 16000) Riyals to 2500 Riyals and that of skilled workers up to 3500 Riyals, depending on the profession.

The salary of professionals such as engineers, doctors, surgeons, managers and chartered accountants has been stipulated at 3500 Riyals (Rs 70000) to 10000 Riyals (Rs 200000) a month depending on profession and experience.

The embassy has also made it mandatory for employers either to provide food facility or a food allowance of at least 200 Riyals (Rs 4000) per month.

At present, most companies provide the facility of accommodation, transportation and medical treatment, but only a few companies, particularly hotels and restaurants, provide food.

The remittance to Nepal from workers in Qatar will increase by about Rs 1.8 billion per month with the new provisions. According to the Nepali embassy in Doha, there are almost half million Nepalis working in Qatar.

Meanwhile, the embassy has also made it mandatory for employers to bear the cost of roundtrip tickets for Nepali workers. With this rule, the cost for workers going to Qatar will be reduce by about Rs 30000 to 35000.

What have not been adequately addressed are the working conditions that Qatar provides for its completely vulnerable guest-workers, as seen by the new statistics for death and injury.  This should not be happening in a place where the economy is so glaringly vibrant.

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The Consequences of Prachanda’s Indiscriminant India-Bashing

 

January 28, 2010

 

It’s not a question of whether or not India has treated Nepal unfairly. Historically, India has regarded Nepal as its poor relation to the north. Lopsided treaties between the two countries reflect that condescension. Illegal land encroachment continues to be a hotly debated issue. There are ample examples that can be cited in which India’s treatment of Nepal could and should be rectified. 

 

However, when Nepali politicos exploit the long-standing resentments of their people, when they use India as their scapegoat for everything that needs fixing in Nepal, when anti-Indian rhetoric becomes the cynical tool for rallying blind nationalism (and easy votes), when they use India-bashing as a means for advancing their own political agendas  -- then the people of Nepal should take a hard look at where that hate-mongering will inevitably lead.

 

Prachanda is a case in point. Nepal’s Maoist leader and erstwhile Prime Minister, has been capturing the headlines recently by making accusations against India that he cannot possibly prove. In a speech given on Jan 9, he made the startling accusation that the Indian Government was behind the tragic Palace Massacre of June 1, 2001 – the fateful event in which King Birendra and his entire immediate royal family were wiped out. In the same speech, Prachanda also asserted that the Indian government was behind the 1993 death of popular communist leader Madan Bhandari. Bhandari died in a road accident. Prachanda provided no evidence to substantiate his allegation that the Indian government orchestrated the event.

 

As reported in Janadisha, (the daily Maoist newspaper), Prachanda claims that, “Madan Bhandari and King Birendra were killed because they did not surrender to India.” Why, specifically, did New Delhi have the royal family slaughtered?  Prachanda provides us with two unverifiable reasons:  King Birendra favored buying weapons for the Royal Army from China instead of India and 2) the Indians discovered that he, Prachanda, was planning to secretly meet the king within the month, presumably with negotiations in mind.

 

One would like to ask Prachanda what happened to his previous theory that it was King Gyanendra who had his own brother and family assassinated – also unsubstantiated but very popular among the people in 2001.

 

In 2010, neither credibility nor consistency seem to be high priorities for Prachanda. Depending on the group he is speaking to, he demonizes India or insists that he wants to have calm discussions with India. He contradicts himself so frequently that even his fellow Maoist leaders seemed to be at a loss as to where he is going.

 

In the second week of January, Prachanda turned on Maoist Second-in-Command Dr. Baburam Bhattarai. Prachanda complained that he was being slighted by New Delhi and that the GOI preferred to deal with Bhattarai instead – the implication being that Bhattarai was too pro-India.

 

Dr. Bhattarai fired back the next day in an interview with Outlook Magazine by characterizing Prachanda’s remark as “an attempt to assassinate my character.” Bhattarai also cautioned that,  “Anti-Indian nationalism has always prevailed in Nepal. But blind nationalism does not work. I have always been in favor of a rational debate and consensus, but there are people in my party, as well as other parties, who are followers of blind nationalism. A leader should be diplomatic and political when he speaks. We shouldn’t be blaming India in a loose manner. We should be able to put across our differences in a polite but clear manner and seek its resolution to the best of our national interest.”

 

This is not the first time Prachanda and Bhattarai have crossed swords. It will be remembered that during the 10-year insurgency Bhattarai fell from grace, reportedly because Prachanda (and other central committee members) felt that Bhattarai was too cozy with Indian power brokers.

 

In any event, on January 16, India’s Foreign Minister S M Krishna met with Prachanda. Krishna had come to Nepal to emphasize the importance of rebuilding consensus among political parties to conclude the peace process and to draft Nepal’s new constitution within the stipulated timeframe. But Krishna used his meeting with Prachanda as an opportunity to let him know that his ramped up India-bashing had crossed the diplomatic line. According to an Indian spokesperson, Krishna conveyed “his deep disappointment at the baseless attacks on India by the Maoist leadership, which vitiate the age-old and time-tested friendly relations between India and Nepal and people of the two countries. He emphasized that such baseless propaganda has negative impact on Indian public opinion.”

 

The latter point may be the salient one: Prachanda behaves as if his remarks are spoken in a vacuum and that no repercussions need be feared. But the truth is that Nepal cannot behave as if it needn’t fuss with Indian opinion. There is practically no level on which Nepal, to some extent, is not reliant on its far more powerful neighbor to the south. Warmer relations with China may somewhat mitigate Nepal’s dependence on India, but it will never erase the fact that Nepal is geographically surrounded by India to the east, south and west. Nepal is landlocked. All the bravado in the world is not going to make that hard fact go away.

 

After his meeting with Krishna, Prachanda glossed things over by assuring reporters that his discussion with Krishna had been a positive one.

 

PRACHANDA AND THE INDIAN ARMY

 

In the meantime, on January 19, India’s Chief of Army Staff General Deepak Kapoor flew into Kathmandu on a four-day goodwill visit to Nepal. Historically, the bilateral relationship of the Indian and Nepali armies has provided a significant means of sustaining trust and mutual confidence between the neighboring nations. The traditional linkage of the two armies underlines Nepal and India’s social and cultural commonality. Beyond that, there is a unique military relationship between the two armies: Large numbers of Nepali Gorkha soldiers and officers have served in the Indian army. General Kapoor met with Nepal’s prime minister, defense minister and COAS. The visit culminated on January 21, when President Yadav conferred on General Kapoor the title of Honorary General of Nepal Army.

 

As if to sabotage the general’s visit, Prachanda gave a speech on January 20 in which he not only dismissed the longstanding relationship between the two armies, but strongly supported the unrealistic (if not bizarre) “Demand for Greater Nepal”, an ultra-nationalist movement to retrieve territories that were lost to India in 1816: The Sugauli Treaty.

 

Prachanda’s logic for demanding the return of land lost two centuries ago goes like this: “The Sugauli Treaty was signed with the British India Company, not with the rulers of present day India. …We have the right to reject the treaty that was signed with the now non-existent East-India Company that ruled India for centuries. The Treaty of 1950 made with India after liberation clearly annuls all those treaties signed with the British India Company. …It is our right to discuss that our territories that extended up to Tista in the east and Sutlej in the west, prior to the signing of the Sugauli Treaty.”

 

It may be Prachanda’s right to discuss such matters, but short of Nepal declaring war on India – a move that would be suicidal and patently absurd – who in Delhi is going to listen to Prachanda with a straight face?

 

INTERNATIONAL CONCERNS THAT DEMAND INDO-NEPALI COOPERATION

 

One of the overriding concerns behind India’s desire to have a good working relationship with Nepal is an international security issue: The use of Nepali soil by Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) and international terrorist elements – particularly anti-Indian terrorist cells. New Delhi would very much like to see an extradition treaty in place with Nepal.

 

On January 12, for instance, Mizra Ali aka “Rasool”, a murder convict with links to the terrorist group Lashkar-e-Taiba, was arrested by India’s Special Task Force on a train headed for Bangladesh, where he had intended to fly on to Afghanistan. Rasool admitted that he worked as an operative of the Taliban and LeT between 2004 and 2008. He also confessed to his involvement in several terror strikes in Afghanistan and Pakistan, after which he escaped to Nepal. Rasool explained to the Bihar police that he had selected the Katihar-Jogbani train because it “took advantage of the long and porous Bihar-Nepali border.”

 

In fact, since the beginning of the 2010, Indian intelligence wings and anti-terror squads have received numerous tips of increasing activity to and from Nepal. They have responded by stepping up security along the Nepali border, in concert with Nepali police.

 

On January 22, the Indian government issued a terror alert in its airports after gathering intel of a possible hijack attempt by al-Quada, Lashkar-e-Taiba and Jamat-ul-Dawa linked terrorists. Specifically, the groups planned to hijack an Air India plane operating in or from Nepal, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Bhutan, Maldives, Afghanistan, Pakistan and India, in an effort to destabilize the region.

 

It will be remembered that, on Christmas Eve 1999, Islamic militants took over an Air India jet flying out of Kathmandu, bound for New Delhi but rerouted to Kandahar, Afghanistan.  One passenger was stabbed to death during the hijack. 167 passengers and crewmembers were later released in exchange for New Delhi turning over four Islamic militants.

 

Following Delhi’s January 22 terror alert, Nepal put security at its international airport on high alert. According to Keshav Raj Khanal, Director General of the Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal, “We will deploy more security forces and beef up our vigilance at the Tribhuvan Airport.”

 

On January 23, India revised its report on Indo-Nepali terrorist activity, stating that recently “not three but over 24 terrorists have intruded the territories of Bihar and UP through the Nepal border.” Director-General of Police of Uttar Pradesh Karmveer Singh suggested that increased activity might be concentrated on January 26, India’s upcoming Republic Day celebration.

 

India’s intensified focus on security issues with Nepal (and other neighbors) can be seen – according to many analysts – by the recent shift of former Foreign Secretary Shiv Shankar Menon to the position of National Security Advisor.

According to the Times of India: “Given Menon’s facility with neighboring nations, his appointment as NSA is seen to indicate that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is keen on tacking some long-running sores. Stability in India’s ties with countries vital to its geo-political interest may well be top priority for the PM in his second term.”

 

This shift may also be reflected in the Indian Prime Minister's impending visit to Nepal. The last time an Indian PM visited Kathmandu was in 2002.

 

Nevertheless, Prachanda’s diatribe against India continues unabated.

 

January 23-24. Prachanda continued to try to have it both ways – practicing diplomacy when in front of Indians and blasting them when he thought they couldn’t hear.

 

Last Saturday, while speaking at the Indian border town of Rajbiraj, he avoided the topic of India's many wrong-doings.  

 

The following day, however, 100 kilometers northwest of Rajbiraj in a provincial outpost, Prachanda gave yet another blistering speech damning India. He reiterated his earlier claim that “both King Birendra and communist leader Madan Bhandari were murdered as per India’s wish.” He went on to claim that “no force on earth” could stop the Maoists from waging another revolt if the peace process was derailed or the constitution drafting was disrupted – an odd thing to say since the Maoists have played the major role in disrupting the process for nearly a year.

 

But really, Prachanda: No power on earth can stop the Maoists?

 

Forget for the moment that India has the bomb. India has many ways of exerting pressure on the Nepali government. Take electricity, for instance.

 

On January 21, Nepal Electricity Authority and the Power Trading Corporation of India reached an agreement to import an additional 30 MW of electricity in Nepal. Nepal asked for 60MW in an effort to reduce Nepal’s chronic load-shedding to twelve hours daily. But after two months of pleading, they settled for half that amount for the simple reason that Nepal had nothing in its pocket to leverage a better deal.

 

If India can turn on Nepal’s light switch—and they do so because they want to work with Nepal – they can just as easily turn it off. And no amount of Maoist chest-thumping can change that unfortunate, but working reality. To deny that reality is not only to be mindlessly provincial, but heedless of what is in the best interest for the people of Nepal. Nepal really has no choice but to keep an open dialogue with India and -- as Dr. Bhattarai suggested -- within civil perimeters. The alternative is dangerous and counterproductive.

 

 

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Suicide Leading Cause of Death Among Young Nepali Women

 

January 23, 2010

 

The IRIN, a project of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs,  reported yesterdays that suicide has emerged as the single leading cause of death among women in Nepal aged 15-49, outranking other causes such as accidents and disease.

 

The Maternal Mortality and Morbidity Study 2008/2009 undertaken by the Family Health Division (FHD) of the Department of Health Services looked at changes in maternal mortality in Nepal since 1998, when the last survey was done.

 

The yearlong study of women of reproductive age (15-49 years) was carried out in eight districts chosen to represent different ethnicities and levels of development in Nepal.

 

The total population of women of this age group in these districts was over 86,000. But in preliminary findings that the study described as shocking, of the 1,496 deaths recorded, suicide - rather than maternal-related issues - was the single leading cause of death, accounting for 16 percent of deaths.

 

In the 1998 study, suicide ranked as the third single cause of death.

 

The finding "highlights the urgent need to address this issue, which has received little attention since its significance was first noted in 1998," the study said.

 

The second single leading cause was accidents, accounting for 9 percent of deaths; no details were specified about the nature of these.

 

"We are absolutely concerned with the findings. This was totally unexpected," Bal Krishna Subedi, who led the study and is a former FHD director, told IRIN. "It has opened our eyes to delve into this issue," he said.

 

The study also found the overall maternal mortality rate in Nepal had improved to 229 maternal deaths per 100,000 live births, compared to 539 maternal deaths per 100,000 live births in 1998.

 

The study said mental health problems, relationships, marriage and family issues were factors in suicides, as was youth, since 21 percent of the suicides were committed by young women aged 18 years and under.

 

However, it did not elaborate on these issues and noted that more research was required into the causes.

 

"Research is needed to improve understanding of the circumstances and contributory factors of these tragic events, to guide interventions," it said.

 

"We need more analysis to find the causes behind suicide, in order to go forward to address this serious concern at the community level," said Sushil Baral, health adviser for the Nepal office of the UK Department for International Development (DFID), one of the study’s funders.

 

"Gender-based violence could be one of the major cause(s), but to what extent it actually impacts, needs to be further studied," he said.

 

Women activists said the study results were not surprising, and that the problem could be even more widespread because suicides are under-reported.

 

"Most families will never report suicide cases as they are afraid of being entangled in police cases," Pinky Rana, director of Samanta, a local women’s rights NGO, told IRIN.

 

The only way to prevent suicides is to criminalize the causes of death, such as dowry disputes and domestic violence, said Sapana Malla Pradhan, a member of parliament and president of the Forum for Women, Law and Development (FWLD).

 

"Once there is suicide, the case is closed and never investigated on what led women committing such [a] drastic step,” said Pradhan.

 

There was a need for proper research to get an accurate picture of suicide among women. However, most aid agencies were not interested in funding such research or studies, she added.

 

Women’s groups also said there was a need for psychosocial counseling in many parts of the country to help women to cope with issues such as depression.

 

"There is a crucial need for counseling training programs and we need more counselors to help these poor victims," said Pradhan.

 

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Nepali Personnel Reported Safe in aftermath of Haiti Earthquake

January 14, 2010

 

As horrific as the news is coming in from Port-au-Prince, there is good news for Nepalis who have family members and loved ones in Haiti. According to Brigadier General Ramindra Chhetri, spokesperson for the National Army, all Nepal Army soldiers deployed in the UN peacekeeping mission in Haiti are safe, except for one man who sustained unspecified injuries. More than 1100 Nepali Army troops are on the impoverished island of which 350 are deployed in Port-au-Prince. This comes as an enormous relief since it is reported that 100 people are missing in the rubble of the collapsed UN headquarters building in Haiti – including mission chief Hedi Annabi.

Meanwhile, according to Republica, the contingent of Nepali police is also believed to be safe. There are 27 Nepal Police officers stationed in Port-au-Prince and 125 policemen stationed in Cape Haikian, 260 kilometers north of the capital. Additional good news: The 11 Armed Police Force officials from Nepal are reported unharmed.

According to a trusted source, who contacted me earlier today, most of the Nepali personnel -- including police, armed police and even UN civilians who ordinarily worked at UN HQ -- were away for a function at Nepalese Battalion HQ during the fateful event. This is incredibly good news, given the tens of thousands of casualties expected to be eventually tallied as dead or missing. Chinese peacekeepers, for instance -- according to Chinese newspapers -- have already suffered eight dead and ten missing.

Personnel of the United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti include:

9,065 total uniformed personnel

7,031 troops

2,034 police

488 international civilian personnel

1,212 local civilian staff

214 United Nations Volunteers

CONTRIBUTING COUNTRIES to UN mission in Haiti, in addition to Nepal:

Military personnel:

Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Ecuador, France, Guatemala, Jordan, Paraguay, Peru, Philippines, South Korea, Sri Lanka, United States and Uruguay.

Police personnel:

Argentina, Bangladesh, Benin, Brazil, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Canada, Central African Republic, Chad, Chile, China, Columbia, Cote d'Ivoire (Ivory Coast), Croatia, Egypt, El Salvador, France, Guinea, India, Jamaica, Jordan, Madagascar, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, Pakistan, Philippines, Romania, Russian Federation, Rwanda, Senegal, Serbia, Spain, Sri Lanka, Switzerland, Togo, Turkey, United States, Uruguay and Yemen.

 

Photographs below are primarily from twitter and video grabs.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Extraordinary rare color footage of Tibet from 1930's to 1950s

December 12, 2010

A treasure trove of rare color films shot by British, Tibetans and Chinese -- and up until now preserved by the British Film Institute -- has just been made into a invaluable documentary by the BBC. You can see it on YouTube by clicking on the three links below.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thanks goes out to photographer Don Farber for bringing this to my attention.

YouTube links:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NwBeO6cdGiw

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H7F2zqUU7HI&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vio0P1DBebw&feature=related

Terror and Mafia Kingpin Dawood Ibrahim: Why Nepal should be paying attention.

 

January 09, 2010

Dawood Ibrahim (aka Dawood Ebrahim and Sheikh Dawood Hassan) was born on December 26, 1955. He is the godfather of the organized crime syndicate D-Company in Mumbai and one of Interpol’s most wanted men. He was No. 4 on the Forbes' World's Top 10 most dreaded criminals list of 2008 and is ranked #50 in Forbes list of “The World's Most Powerful People.”  

Dawood Ibrahim first attracted international interest after the 1993 Bombay bombings. In 2003, the United States declared him an “international terrorist” with close links to al-Qaida’s Osama bin Laden, and pursued the matter before the United Nations, attempting to freeze his international assets and crack down on his operations. More recently, Russian and Indian intelligence agencies have looked closely at Ibrahim's possible involvement in the November 2008 Mumbai hotel attacks. Among other things, there is circumstantial evidence that Ibrahim’s network provided a boat to the ten terrorists who killed 173 people in the 2008 Mumbai slaughter.  

Ibrahim’s whereabouts remains unknown, although India’s Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) believes he is in hiding in Pakistan. Pakistan officials deny any knowledge of his presence in their country. But the issue will not go away. The extradition of Dawood Ibrahim remains one of the major hurdles in the difficult relations between India and Pakistan.  

THE SPECIFICS OF IBRAHIM’S D-COMPANY  

Four days ago, on January 5, 2010, the United States’ Congressional Research Service (CRS), a research wing of Congress, released a report that identifies D-Company as a criminal syndicate now numbering 5,000 members with strategic alliance with the ISI, LeT and al Qaida, thus making it a leading example of the “criminal-terrorism” fusion model that currently poses an increasing threat to South Asian interests.  

The report, titled "International Terrorism and Transnational Crime: Security Threats, US Policy, and Considerations for Congress", notes that D-Company is involved in a variety of criminal activities, including extortion, smuggling, narcotics trafficking, contract killing, and deep infiltration into the Indian filmmaking industry, (extorting producers, assassinating directors, distributing movies, and pirating films).  

But, according to the report, D-Company's evolution into a genuine terrorist group began in response to the destruction of the December 1992 Babri Mosque in Ayodhya, India. 2000 people died in the ensuing riots and Hindu-Muslim relations deteriorated dramatically as a result.  

Then: "Reportedly with assistance from Pakistan government's intelligence branch, the Inter-Services Intelligence agency (ISI), D-Company launched a series of bombing attacks on March 12, 1993, killing 257 people," the report said. Following the attacks, Ibrahim moved his network's headquarters to Karachi. There, D-Company is believed to have deepened its strategic alliance with the ISI and developed links to Lashkar-e-Tayyiba (LeT).

 

(For those unfamiliar with it, LeT is an organization included in the Terrorist Exclusion List by the US Government in December 2001. It was subsequently proscribed by the United Nations in May 2005. Formed in 1990 in the Kunar province of Afghanistan, LeT is now headquartered in Muridke, near Lahore in Pakistan, and headed by Hafiz Muhammad Saeed.)

 

During the 1990s, according to the Congressional Research Service report, Ibrahim’s D-Company “began to finance LeT's activities, use its companies to lure recruits to LeT training camps, and give LeT operatives use of its smuggling routes and contacts. …Lending his criminal expertise and networks to such terrorist groups, [Ibrahim] is capable of smuggling terrorists across national borders, trafficking in weapons and drugs, controlling extortion and protection rackets, and laundering ill-gotten proceeds, including through the abuse of traditional value transfer methods, like hawala."  

Also known as hundi, hawala is an informal value transfer system based on the performance and honor of a huge network of money brokers, which are primarily located in the Middle East, North Africa, the Horn of Africa, and South Asia.  

DAWOOD IBRAHIM’S RELATIONSHIP TO NEPAL AND THE PAKISTANI CONNECTION  

Ibrahim has a long-standing connection to Nepal and was once a regular visitor to Nepal, according to Indian officials.  He has since restricted his movement outside of Pakistan but, according to a South Asia Tribune report written in April 2004, Ibrahim was last seen in Kathmandu in the last week of August 2003. During that visit, he met his Nepali front man Sartaj Ahmed and several leaders from fundamentalist organizations. Sartaj is reportedly “in constant touch with officials of the Pakistani Embassy.”  

Dawood has big financial stakes in Nepal: “He has made huge investments in a variety of business ventures, from media, private airlines, hotels, travel agencies to trans-border smuggling including that of gold. In Nepal he has built high level contacts with businessmen, officials, politicians, smugglers and religious fundamentalists,” according to South Asia Tribune. “The late Mirza Dilshad Beg, an ex-member of parliament of Nepal, was once an associate of Dawood. He was gunned down in Kathmandu in 1998. After his death, his son-in-law Sartaj joined Dawood.”  

WHY NEPALIS SHOULD CARE ABOUT THE DAWOOD IBRAHIM CONNECTION

The exploitation of trade routes crossing through Nepal’s porous southern border – for both smuggling and the either direct or indirect exportation of terrorism (both domestic and Pakistani) – has now become a problem of increasing international concern and scrutiny. As long as the main political parties continue to squabble among themselves, while a would-be new constitution remains unwritten, and while southern Nepal remains an area with little or no effective security, the “criminal-terrorism fusion”, which has taken root in Nepal, will be favored with conditions suitable for further expansion and control. If this pattern cannot be reversed by the good people of Nepal, eventually, the international community may decide that they must address Nepal’s degeneration of law and order themselves – with or without Nepal’s consent.  

Dawood Ibrahim’s name came up once again – in connection with Nepal –  just last week. In the first days of 2010, the dramatic arrest of the son of a powerful Nepalese politician on charges of heading a major fake Indian currency and drugs smuggling racket, allegedly sponsored by Pakistani intelligence agencies, further exposed how illicit funds pour into Nepal (with the underworld’s help) – presumably to destabilize India’s relations with Nepal. 

Here’s what happened.  

A special task force of Nepal police arrested Yunus Ansari, the son of former minister Salim Miya Ansari, who is alleged to have links with Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) and Dawood Ibrahim, after a tip-off by Indian authorities that he was running the two criminal networks.  

Yunus Ansari, the president of Nepal’s National Wrestling Federation, is also the chairman of a new television channel that is yet to start regular transmission. While Yunus Ansari was arrested along with three Nepalis, two Pakistanis, one African and one from the Caribbean, police said they had no evidence against his father, former forest and soil conservation minister Ansari.  

Yunus Ansari and his associates were caught with fake Indian currency worth over Indian Rs.2.5 million last week and nearly four kilograms of heroin after a long period of surveillance that started with the arrest of two Nepalis with fake Indian currency in India’s Madhya Pradesh state last year.  

The Nepal chase started on New Year’s Day when Yunus Ansari’s Nepali bodyguard, Kashiram Adhikari, was dispatched to Thamel, once the hub of tourists and now increasingly targeted by criminals and sex workers, to make contact with Pakistani agents.  

Adhikari led police to the Red Planet Guest House in Thamel where Pakistani national Mohammad Sajjad was awaiting him in room 304. The bodyguard collected a red suitcase from Sajjad and went to room 204 where another Pakistani, Mohammad Iqbal, was waiting with two suitcases.  

After collecting the lot, Adhikari headed for the Bluebird Mall in Thapathali where Yunus Ansari had allegedly rented a room. Police caught him there and a search exposed the false bottoms in the suitcases, where the fake notes were hidden.  

According to initial investigation, the racket starts from Karachi, where a Pakistani known as Haji Talad Ali heads it. The modus operandi was simple. The money would be brought to the same guesthouse from where Adhikari would take it to his master.  

When police raided the hotel and arrested the two Pakistanis, Sajjad was found to possess heroin as well. Yunus was arrested soon afterwards from his residence in Tahachal.  

Police also arrested a Guyana citizen, K. Ibrahim, and another from Sierra Leone, Austin Ibrahim, who were to have circulated the heroin.  

ON NEW YEAR’S DAY, INDIA BEEFED UP SECURITY ALONG NEPAL’S BORDER BECAUSE OF PAKISTANI CONCERNS  

On January 1, 2010, New Delhi placed its country on alert as the police launched a manhunt for three Pakistani militants who escaped from police custody.  

Abdul Razzak, Mohammed Sadiq and Rafaqat Ali escaped from G B Pant hospital in central Delhi.   The three had served jail terms for triggering two blasts in the city’s 16th century Red Fort in 2000. They were in the custody of Special Branch of Delhi Police and were to be handed over to the Foreigners Regional Registration office (FRRO) for deportation to Pakistan when the escape took place.  

While the Meghalaya Police personnel, who were escorting the three, were being questioned by security agencies, Uttar Pradesh state police deployed additional security along the India-Nepal border to guard against possible threats or escapes through the 870-mile open border of Nepal. 

The point here is that, in many people’s minds, the potential of a Nepali-Pakistani connection is becoming a given. This is not a healthy presumption for Nepal to have to contend with.  

The Nepali police did an outstanding job of bringing Yunus Ansari to ground. Crimes were being committed and a crack team stepped in and took proper action.  

But the police cannot be expected to do the government’s job, which is to provide stability – an atmosphere in which criminal activity can be curtailed before it actually takes place. Neither the Maoists nor the UML nor the Congress Party, nor any of the other parties for that matter, have been able to provide that sort of backdrop for the people of Nepal, who deserve far better.  

Little wonder that the three major parties’ leaders – Prachanda, Koirala and Prime Minister Nepal -- were christened “The 3 Idiots” by the Nepali Times this week, a reference to a new Bollywood film that is currently all the rage in Kathmandu.

 

 

The international community may not get the joke, per se, but they’ll comprehend the cynicism behind the joke. They know that incompetence, at the end of the day, really isn’t all that funny.  

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