Indians helped Nepali church bomber

He said that the NDA purchased arms from United Liberation Front of Assam (ULFA), a separatist outfit fighting to free North East Indian state Assam from Indian rule.

The man who bombed a catholic church in Nepal last year has confirmed links with Hindu fundamentalist parties of India, saying his extremist group was formed in New Delhi.

Ram Prasad Mainali, the chief of now defunct extremist group Nepal Defence Army (NDA) said he had link with India’s Hindu fanatic outfits such as India’s VHP, BJP, RSS and Shiv Sena.

Mainali is currently serving time in Nakkhu jail in Kathmandu for bombing the Catholic church in Lalitpur on May 23, 2009.

The 37-year-old said Hindu leaders in India helped him began NDA aiming to reinstate monarchy and declare Nepal a Hindu nation again.

The NDA was formed in New Delhi in the early months of 2007 at a meeting held in Birla Mandir, a Hindu temple.

In an interview with an Indian news portal, he said a large number of Hindu fundamentalists and nationalists from India had attended the meeting.

The leaders included those from Vishwa Hindu Parishad, the parent party of India’s main opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Rastriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), Bajrang Dal and the Shiva Sena party.

Mainali, however, refused to name the leaders who attended the meeting.

Mainali also said the NDA, which has become inactive since his arrest in Sep 2009, was receiving about Rs 500,000 every month from the aforementioned organizations.

He said that the NDA purchased arms from United Liberation Front of Assam (ULFA), a separatist outfit fighting to free North East Indian state Assam from Indian rule.

During the candid interview, Mainali said that he regretted bombing the church which killed a teenager and a woman from Bihar and injured more than a dozen others.

He says he has become disillusioned with Hindu nationalists since and has sought refuge in Christianity whom his outfit had vowed to drive away from the country.

He said he started reading the bible after coming in contact with Christians inside the prison and also attends the Nakkhu Gospel Church run inside the prison premises.

via Nepalnews