The British government launched a covert operation in support of the Nepali government against communist rebels during the country's decadelong Maoist insurgency, according to a new book, entitled Kathmandu.

The book, unveiled officially on Sept 4, says British authorities had funded and also conducted a four-year intelligence operation in the Himalayan country from 2002 to 2006 code-named "Operation Mustang".

The book, which is on sale in Nepal and neighboring India, claims that the covert operation - conducted by spy agency MI6 - was specially focused on supporting Nepal's state security agency, the Nepal Army, in the fight against Maoist insurgents, leading to their murder, arrest and torture.

The Secret Intelligence Service, commonly known as MI6 (Military Intelligence, Section 6), is the British agency that supplies foreign intelligence to the British government.

"The operation was designed to assist the Nepali authorities, especially their intelligence service known as the National Investigation Department, to identify and infiltrate Maoist networks in Kathmandu," author Thomas Bell tells Xinhua.

Bell, a journalist reporting from Kathmandu for The Economist and other publications, is a long-time resident of Kathmandu.

"Information about Operation Mustang was first publicly disclosed in 2007 following a corruption scandal inside the NID," Bell says.

"The disclosures at that time showed that the British had contributed a large amount of equipment and resources in their anti-Maoist operation."

Bell also claims that the MI6 had run three safe houses as part of "Operation Mustang".

"Although people knew this in 2007, there was no follow-up then. It was almost hushed up, you could say," he says.

Bell says he came to know about the MI6's operation in Nepal through "speaking to a large number of sources, mostly Nepali security officials who were involved or had knowledge of the operation. They said that the British operation was very effective in strengthening Nepali counterterrorism or intelligence efforts in Kathmandu."

He further claims that the British operation led to numerous arrests by the army, and some of those arrested were tortured or died while in custody.

Bell, however, says he doesn't know why the British government did it.

"Well, the British policy doesn't seem to make much sense, because at the same time they were secretly supporting these abuses, they were publicly advocating human rights," he adds.

The unraveling of the case about British government's intervention in such a sensitive case during the decade-long civil war, however, has aroused speculations among the observers, critics and stakeholders in Nepal.

The internal war fought from 1996 to 2006 between the Nepali government and the Maoists, who have now joined Nepal's mainstream politics, left as many as 15,000 Nepalis dead and an estimated 150,000 people displaced.

Xinhua

(China Daily 09/10/2014 page19)