NATIONAL FORCES BEGIN ATTACK ON NEPAL

Wanganui Chronicle, 13 November 1950, Page 5

NATIONAL FORCES BEGIN ATTACK ON NEPAL

Objective Is The Capital NEW DELHI, Nov. 11 (Recd. 6pm). —Exiled Nepalese National forces today attacked at nine points the Gurkha Himalayan kingdom ruled by the hereditary Prime Minister, Mohun Shumshere, according to reports reaching Raxaul, just across the border in the Indian State of Bihar. The objective was the seizure of Nepal’s capital, Katmandhu. Soon after the operations began at midnight, troops of a private army organised by members of the Nepalese Congress, who fled to India last year, captured Birganj, the second largest city in the State, three miles from the border of Raxaul, and set up a “parallel” Government. Reports reaching Raxaul said that radio stations at Katmandhu and Buking are already under Nationalist control. The Nationalists’ entry into Nepal came within a week of the flight from his palace in Katmandhu of the 44-years-old King of Nepal who is believed to be in sympathy with the Nationalists and the enthronement of his grandson, Prince Gyanendra The King has arrived in New Delhi from Katmandhu, where he has taken refuge in the Indian Embassy. At Birganj Nationalists captured | nearly 100 Nepalese Government Gurkha troops after a two-hour skirmish in which they tcok over the barracks. The Governor of Birganj and other officials were takm to Raxaul under arrest and removed to a secret destination.

The Nationalists appo’nt.ed one of their own leaders, Tej Bahadur, to administer the occupied area. Bahadur said today that Nepali Congress forces were attacking along the 500-mile long “southern underbelly” of Nepal. He listed points of attack as Birganj itself—three miles inside Nepal and the first town to fall—Betti, Subtari, Mahottari and Biratnagar in South-eastern Nepal, across the border from Bihar in southwestern Nepal. Over the border with the United Provinces they were attacking Papapari Ncpalganj, Sukhiy, Poora and Parasi. The Birganj “Government” is the first to open in opposition to the Ranas, who took over all authority in the 54.000 square miles State in 1867, when the King ceded power permanently, under pressure from the nobility. India’s interest in Nepal—the only Hindu kingdom in the world—is that it is virutally a buffer State between India and Tibet.