After Maoists, Nepal plagued by fake Maoists

7-October-2004


World News, Kathmandu, In the alley shops and street bazaars of Kathmandu, you can buy fakes of almost any expensive, esteemed brand you can think of - from Levis jeans to Adidas shoes and CDs to Rado watches.

And now, in the course of an eight-year-old insurgency started by an outlawed, underground communist party, there is a mushrooming of "fake Maoists" as well.

Though the rebels, fighting to overthrow monarchy and establish a communist republic, risk being arrested or even gunned down by security forces when they make a public appearance, people have been known to try and make a fast buck by posing as Maoists.

There has been a spate of incidents in which a group of people calling themselves Maoists have tried to extort shopkeepers, businessmen and villagers.

Since the Maoists also do the same thing in the name of "collecting tax for the people's government", at times it is impossible to tell the fake outfit from the genuine.


In July, the media reported how residents of Fasku village in the remote district of Dolakha, considered a Maoist stronghold, rounded up people calling themselves Maoists and trying to extort money and handed them over to police.

In another incident, police in the popular tourist destination Pokhara in western Nepal arrested 12 people who posing as Maoists and were intimidating and robbing residents.

The Maoists themselves are aware of the phenomenon and at times have punished the pretenders severely.

This year, they killed three people in a village about south of Nepalgunj, reportedly for masquerading as Maoists.

Last year, when the rebels were holding peace talks with the government and a truce had been declared, the Maoist leaders surfaced in Kathmandu. One of them, Ram Bahadur Thapa aka Badal, had said in an interview with a local weekly, Nepali Times, that cadres of one of the largest political parties, the Communist Party of Nepal-United Marxist Leninist, were posing as Maoists to discredit the organisation.

The phenomenon grabbed the headlines Tuesday when a nameless statement, purporting to be by the Maoists, surfaced in the capital, creating a furore. Sphere: Related Content