'Pressure mounts on king to back down'

Nepalese people walk past police barbed wire along a Kathmandu street yesterday. Nepali security forces battling Maoist rebels will be told to uphold human rights but guerrillas face tough action if they refuse King Gyanendra's call for peace talks, the kingdom's army chief General Pyar Jung Thapa warned. PHOTO: AFP

While New Delhi believes a military solution is not the answer to the insurgency, it has a vital stake in helping quell the revolt as it fears Maoist violence could spill into parts of India where radical leftist groups are powerful and create "a red corridor" from Nepal, analysts say.

"It's in India's interest to bolster and help Nepal's military as it has been doing for so many years because of the Maoist problem in India and the links between the rebels in Nepal and India," said Rahul Bedi, a New Delhi-based analyst for Jane's Defence Weekly.

New Delhi has expressed "grave concern" at the dismissal of Nepal's government by Gyanendra who has pledged to restore democracy in three years in the impoverished Himalayan nation wedged between India and China.

"India is leaning on the king by putting subtle military and economic pressure on him. Since Thursday, no high-speed diesel supplies have been sent up from India to Nepal," said an army commander, who did not want to be named.

"The Royal Nepal army is dependent on fuel supplies from India -- all choppers and infantry combat vehicles run on high-speed diesel," he told AFP.

There was no official confirmation, but Indian transport officials said queues of trucks were idling in front of key Indo-Nepal border checkpoints in Raxaul, Jogbani, Nepalganj, Nautanwa and Jayanagar.

The Times of India newspaper reported India's new army chief General Joginder Jaswant Singh turned down an invitation from his counterpart General Pyaar Jung Thapa to visit Nepal in what it said was "yet another indication of India's critical stand."

However, army sources said India had kept back-door negotiation channels open and was urging the king not to risk any major offensive against the Maoists unless he was sure to win.

New Delhi is also pressing the king to launch talks to end the increasingly savage conflict that has claimed 11,000 lives since 1996, they said.

India, along with the United States and Britain, has been an important backer of Nepal in its drive to crush the insurgency that has sapped the nation's already weak economy.