Immediately after receiving threats, Bhattarai telephoned Home Minister Krishna Bahadur Mahara and party secretary Ram Bahadur Thapa asking them to take action against the "growing number of criminals in the party who are active under the veneer of politics."[break]
According to party sources, Bhattarai complained that a group of trade unionists close to former chief of the All Nepal Trade Union Federation Salikram Jammakattel, who were outside the Maoist party headquarters on Monday, had asked their colleagues to immediately arrive there to "finish off" Bhattarai when the latter was meeting some foreign journalists.
Bhattarai´s aides and security guards who overheard the conversations informed Bhattarai about it after the meeting. And then, Bhattarai informed Thapa and Mahara about the incident.
"Let´s follow Bhattarai and finish him off in the next four or five days. You should come over here to make a plan," a source close to Bhattarai quoted one Janak Bartaula from Jammakattel faction as saying.
Bartaula spoke to his colleagues over the phone aloud so that Bhattarai´s aides who were standing nearby could overhear the conversations.
Jammakattel was inside his office, adjacent to the party headquarters, when his group threatened Bhattarai.
"They are threatening me today and they may target you tomorrow. Without political protection, such incidents could not take place. We must take serious initiatives to punish criminals who have infiltrated the party rank and file," a source quoted Bhattarai as telling Thapa. Bhattarai also informed Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal about the incident after the latter arrived home from his Bangkok trip Monday evening.
Bartaula, who is a bouncer at Casino Tara and close to Jammakattel, has been involved in a number of assualts against trade unionists close to Bhattarai and Senior Vice-chairman Mohan Baidya.
But Jammakattel denied that his faction threatened physical action against Bhattarai. "He [Bhattarai] is our party leader. So we give him security, instead of issuing threats against him," Jammakattel told Republica. He said that Bhattarai should have asked Bartaula not to be "anarchic" even if the latter had really threatened him. "I could have produced him any time. I don´t understand why he resorted to media publicity, instead of seeking solutions," Jammakattel said.
The Jammakattel faction has reportedly targeted the Bhattarai group lately for asking the government to arrest one Kalpadeep Rai for beating up the unionists from rival factions. Rai is currently in police cusody.
Meanwhile, the chairman of the Maoist-aligned Revolutionary Journalists Association, Maheshwar Dahal, expressed concerns over the threat against Bhattarai and demanded that the party take action against the guilty.
Maoist trade union faction has been split vertically into three factions -- loyal to Dahal, Baidya and Bhattarai. Jammakattel faction, which is close to Dahal, has been involved in a number of assaults against supporters of Baidya and Dahal factions. Factionalism in the union has grown so much that the Maoist party has been unable to solve the problems.
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