NA troops, APF assume security arrangements in PLA cantonment

The Nepal Army (NA) troops assumed the security of most of the 15 cantonments of the Maoist People’s Liberation Army (PLA) on Monday following a decision of the Army Integration Special Committee (AISC) to bring the former Maoist combatants , their weapons and the cantonments under NA.

The NA personnel took charge of seven main cantonments and five satellite camps and the Armed Police Force were deployed in three satellite camps. They will now oversee the security arrangements of the cantonments including combatants, the arms storage containers and infrastructure.

Balananda Sharma, the coordinator of the AISC secretariat, said that all camps have come under the command of the national security forces. With this the former Maoist combatants have also under the chain of command of national army.

Reports said that PLA also handed over weapons they used for the security of their camps to the army and the PLA guards at the cantonments have also been replaced by Nepal Army and APF personnel.

Keeping in view the obstructions caused by protesting disqualified combatants, who were discharged in 2010, and reports of clashes between the combatants at few cantonments on Monday, the UCPN (Maoist) agree to begin handing over the Maoist combatants, weapons, and camps to the NA two day before schedule.

Meanwhile, the teams mobilised by the AISC secretariat will continue to carry out regrouping of the combatants to select some 6500 combatants for integration and place the rest under the voluntary retirement scheme. nepalnews.com