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Josy Joseph in New Delhi
The senior Pakistani diplomat who was arrested in Kathmandu on Thursday with 16 kilogrammes of RDX is likely to be deported from Nepal by Friday evening, reliable sources in the country said.
Indian intelligence agencies believe the RDX recovered from Mohammed Arshad Cheema was meant for the Maoist rebels in Nepal who have in recent times carried out bloody attacks on the local police.
Nepalese police sources said they are working to deport Cheema, first secretary in the Pakistani embassy.
Cheema was arrested from the office-cum-residence of a Pakistani engineering firm in Kathmandu. His wife and a security guard at the building too are in police custody now.
The diplomat's arrest begins another chapter in the turf battle between Indian and Pakistani intelligence agencies in the Himalayan kingdom.
Cheema is no stranger to controversy. He was accused of meeting the hijackers of Indian Airlines Flight IC-814 minutes before the aircraft took off on December 24, 1999.
According to sources, Cheema was to return to Pakistan on Friday after completing his tenure in Nepal. He had moved out of his diplomatic residence to a flat owned by Sachel Engineering Works (Private) Limited, a Pakistani firm which Indian intelligence believes was floated by the Inter-Services Intelligence. The house is registered in the name of Ghulam Hussain Cheema of Sachel.
There were two vehicles belonging to the Pakistani embassy in the compound when the arrests were made, say officials. The cars bore the number plates 42-CD-11 and 42-CD-6.
Cheema told the police he was about to go out for dinner. The police believe the cars may have been there for him to transport the RDX to some other hideout of the Maoists.
The Nepalese police stumbled on to the case while investigating Maoist activities in the country. In the past two weeks, the Maoists have attacked two police stations, killing more than 30 policemen in each attack. The insurgency is growing into a national crisis in the kingdom, and there is growing unanimity on the need to fight the extremist menace.
Indian officials say it is unlikely that the consignment of RDX was headed for India, because the Nepalese Army has stepped up patrolling along the border. "It would have been difficult to smuggle so much explosives through the border," a senior official in Kathmandu said on telephone.
Indian intelligence reports have always termed Cheema the key ISI point man in Nepal. There are numerous reports with various intelligence agencies about his operations in the country. One of his deputies, a clerk named Asam Saboor, was arrested last yearend with fake Indian currency and deported from Nepal.
In November 1998, Cheema and Saboor were named by Lakhbir Singh, a Sikh terrorist who was arrested from Kathmandu's Valley View Hotel with 19kg of RDX. Singh said Cheema had supplied him the RDX.
The Indian establishment is clearly delighted at Cheema's arrest. The Pakistani official has accused Indian operatives of having planted the RDX on him. But senior Indian officials say his arrest has finally proved them right about Cheema's role in Nepal.
EARLIER REPORT: Pakistani diplomat arrested with RDX in Nepal
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