Chieftain of armed outfit modeled after Che Guevara nabbed

SINDHUPALCHOK, Feb 15: A man, who police said was all set to launch an armed struggle against the state by collecting enough weapons, ammunition and money, has been arrested from a remote village of Sindhupalchok district.



Sonam Tamang, 43, the self-anointed chairman of a “revolutionary” group, Nepal Communist Party (Che-ist), was arrested from Golche VDC-7 of Sindhupalchok Friday midnight. Police also recovered 21 guns and 47 bullets from Tamang. [break]



Tamang, who had named his party after Latin American communist icon Che Guevara, was sleeping in a cow shed when police reached there. Tamang had hidden all weapons in a pit nearby.



“After being surrounded by the police, he (Tamang) just gave in,” said DSP Pratap Gurung, chief of District Police Office of Sindhupalchok. “He did not try to resist at all.”

A team of police deployed from Sindhupalchok as well as the anti-terrorist cell of Nepal Police had reached Golche by walking for over two hours to arrest Tamang.





PHOTO: DHRUBA DANGAL



According to Gurung, the police failed to nab other members of Tamang´s organization as they had taken shelter in various places to avoid arrest.



The police had considered Tamang´s group as a possible threat after several people complained of being extorted by him. Of late, Tamang and his friends had been extorting local traders, VDC secretaries and teachers in Golche, Gumba, Hagam, Selang, Baramchi and Pangtang VDCs of Sindhupalchok.



According to the police, Tamang´s group had also been training some people to manufacture Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs). Earlier, Tamang´s group had set off a bomb at a function attended by Maoist leaders, including Finance Minister Barshaman Pun, in Jalbire of Sindhupalchok. Following the explosion, in which no one was injured, Tamang´s group had intensified criminal activities in Sindhupalchok.



Tamang, who spent many years working in India, was allegedly involved in extorting people in the guise of a Maoist leader during the insurgency. Later, he formed a little known political party that worked together with Ramraja Prasad Singh, who had gained publicity by exploding bombs before the people´s movement in 1990.

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