Every one interestingly watching political developments in Nepal is surprised and under suspicion as the number of the weapons registered is relatively low compared to the number of registered PLA.
According to Kantipur daily, the government talks team expressed their surprise with the Maoist talks team about the relatively fewer number of weapons compared with the number of combatants registered.
The United Nations Mission in Nepal (UNMIN) has informed that it has registered 30852 combatants and 3428 weapons. The ratio of army personals and weapons is exactly 9:1.
Is it not quite interesting to learn about the Maoists technique of warfare if such low numbers of weapons can engage a comparatively large in size and well trained Nepalese Army? May be the military experts must have answers to this question.
Maoist leader Nanda Kishor Pun said they have already cantoned all the weapons they possessed. Mr. Pun (Pasang) is deputy commander of the PLA who claimed that they have handed over all the weapons.
He added, besides some homemade weapons, the Maoists had been using the arms seized from the army and police forces during the raids. He totally rejected the charges that the Maoists have buried some weapons. The Maoists have said that they only had socket bombs in large number. The number of the socket bombs are yet to be public.
However, the leaders of major political parties have termed the concern, raised from various sides regarding lesser amount of arms registered by the Maoists as compared to their combatants, as unnecessary.
Interacting with media persons in the capital, Saturday, they cautioned that raising such an issue at this juncture could affect the ongoing peace process.
CPN UML standing committee member, Bam Dev Gautam said the other parties should trust the Maoists when they say that they have produced all the arms before the United Nations monitors.
Nepali Congress leader Dr. Shekhar Koirala was of views the parties should give importance to create atmosphere of political honesty and trust over the issue of weapons allegedly hidden by the Maoists. But are the Maoists really honest in declaring their arms?
Army specialist Indrajit Rai said he thought the Maoists had 12,000 weapons and understood that they will show 6000 later.
Meanwhile, leader of Nepali Congress Democratic, Dr Minendra Rijal said the responsibility actually lies on the Maoists to prove to the Nepali people, the Prime Minister, and the UN that they have not hidden any arms.
