KATHMANDU: Nine years after the tragic assassination of Nepal's King Birendra, a former royal aide has dropped a book bombshell alleging India could have possibly incited the killing.
The claim was made in a dramatic way during a talkshow on a private channel on Monday night, two days ahead of the slain king's 65th birth anniversary.
In his memoir, "Maile dekheko darbar" which means 'The palace, as I saw it', former palace military secretary Gen Bibek Shah writes that New Delhi provided arms training to Nepal's anti-monarchy maoist insurgents and claims he was asked to resign because he came to know about it.
The former general of the Nepal Army, who had served the palace for nearly 30 years, said he would launch the book formally on Wednesday, the 65th birth anniversary of King Birendra.
Excerpts from the 599-page memoir were carried in at least two dailies Tuesday.
According to Shah, who was military secretary to both King Birendra and his successor King Gyanendra, though it was undoubtedly Dipendra who pulled the trigger and caused the carnage on June 1, 2001, in which nine others died, he could have been incited by foreign powers.
King BIrendra, he writes in his book, tried to modernise the outdated arsenal of Nepal Army. He had entered into negotiations with a foreign gun manufacturer to buy as well as assemble guns in Nepal, from where they could be sold in South Asia, Shah writes.
India, he writes, was against Nepal having more sophisticated weapons than it had. "It was also worried about what would happen if such sophisticated guns fell into the hands of the Maoists."
During both BIrendra and Gyanendra's visits to India, Shah claimed they were pressured by the Indian leaders to buy its indigenous Insas family of firearms at a "friendly" price.
India later supplied Insas to Nepal Army at a 70 per cent subsidy.
Shah also writes that a team of Nepal Armed Police, that went to Chakrauta in Uttaranchal to receive arms training, were told by the trainers as well as locals that in the past other groups were also trained in the same facility.
The other group referred to the Maoists.
Shah also claims in his book that India trained the Tamil Tigers as well as Bangladesh's Mukti Senas at the same facility. When he was informed about this by a senior police officer he tried to investigate the truth, Shah writes adding that he was unceremoniously asked by King Gyanendra to resign following this because of pressure by India.
The allegations come even as India has been saying that its maoists have been receiving arms training by maoist parties in Nepal. Also, the allegations come at a time India-Nepal ties are at a low ebb, ahead of foreign secretary Nirupama Rao's visit to Nepal.
