Anyone looking at Pakistan with suspicion will find the job easy in Kathmandu. For, Nepal, thanks to a liberal immigration policy and a porous border with India, is serving not only as a transit for those on the run but also as a haven for Pak-sponsored terrorist activity.Indian Intelligence reports say that Dawood Ibrahim last came here in August; members of the LTTE use Nepal as a regular route and rebels of the NSCN (I/M) often travel on Nepalese passports.After the Nepal police found 30 kg of RDX in diplomatic bags bound for the Pakistan Embassy early last year, Islamabad's diplomatic contingent is the only one whose official baggage is searched at the Tribhuvan airport.The size of the Pakistan Embassy is also a subject for speculation in Indian official circles in Kathmandu. While India has a diplomatic staff of 75, Pakistan has 30, higher that any other SAARC country. Bangladesh, Bhutan, Sri Lanka and the Maldives have less than 15 officials each.The embassy's size, Indian officials claim, is one sign of how Pakistan is increasingly making its presence felt in the country. Intelligence officials say that across the 1,850-km-long Indo-Nepal border that runs along West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, there has been heavy traffic of explosives and militants, on way to Jammu and Kashmir, even to the North-East. One reason is that the border in J&K and Punjab has over the past five years become less ``porous''. In contrast, the Nepal border is open and immigration rules are lax.An example is the case of Mohammed Dosa, wanted in connection with the Mumbai blasts. Dosa, who is said to be in Dubai now, has a Nepalese passport issued by His Majesty's Government. New Delhi has taken up the matter with Kathmandu but the passport is yet to be revoked.Officials in Kathmandu attribute this to the ludicrously simple procedure to get a Nepalese passport. All you need is a citizenship certificate issued by any of the 75 Chief District Officers. The going ``price'' for a forged one: Rs 10,000 Nepali rupees and a ten-day stay which is required to get the certificate.More than seven years ago, the Indian Intelligence Bureau had prepared a status report on ISI activity in Nepal. This was discussed at a Cabinet meeting and the matter taken up with Kathmandu. Nepal proposed a radical rework of the 1950 treaty and a system of visas. Delhi turned it down.Today both countries point fingers at each other. While Nepal says India's only interested in scoring ``propaganda points'', Indian officials attribute Nepal's lax immigration laws to the ease with which militants use this country.Ambassador K.V. Rajan says: ``It is a matter of grave concern and we need to work out a framework in order to contain this.''Nepal Home Office officials insist that every time India has brought a case to their notice, they have taken action. Former Home Secretary K. Padmanabhaiah admits that Nepal has always cooperated on a case by case basis. This despite the fact that there is an atmosphere of mistrust.There have been quite a few cases of Indian security authorities showing little respect for Nepal's territorial sovereignty while sending teams into the country to arrest wanted men. The Nepal Government says it's hard put to justify this to the locals.While Nepal says it's making a ``valiant attempt'' to check border movement, Indian border posts are a study in contrasts. Absence of guards, few telephones, no checking equipment and in some cases not even the bare furniture are common. This is the crux of the Kathmandu connection since militants find it easy to slip through.Rajan says the movement of explosives and ISI activity is a serious concern and admits that ``perhaps it has not got the attention it deserves from the Indian security establishment''.Take the case of the Himalayan Bank. It asked the State Bank of India thrice to enter in a partnership. After it was turned down, it joined hands with Pakistan's Habib Bank. Now Indian officials in Kathmandu suspect that this bank is being used to park ISI funds. India asked the bank for details of seven ``suspect accounts''. Says Birender Kumar, a senior Nepal Government official in the Home department: ``We ensured that the Habib Bank has only 20 per cent stake and when the Indian officials asked for some account details we provided them. But why does India get upset now? We offered the partnership to them first.''Senior Pakistan diplomatic officials here say that this is ``typical Indian propaganda''. Says a senior official on the condition of anonymity: ``They see the ISI under virtually every bed''. Haven for terrorism - Militant strikes using Kathmandu as a base in the past one year January 1997: A series of bomb blasts allegedly planned for Republic Day this year in Delhi and Srinagar by members of the Jammu and Kashmir Islamic Front (JKIF) including Fayaz Ahmed Shah and four others. They were arrested in Lazimpet on January 18 and based on their interrogation the police seized another 20 kg of RDX from Gongabu bus terminal. Also recovered was a fax sent from Islamabad on how to manufacture an explosive device. Interrogation reports say the explosives were brought in through diplomatic pouches of the Pakistan embassy.AUGUST 1997: Vikram Wahi, an accused in the Gulshan Kumar murder case, came to Mumbai via Nepal and returned to Kathmandu after the killing. A day before his body was found on the Indo-Nepal border, the Nepal police had raided a hotel where he was believed to be staying. Wahi's torso was found on the Uttar Pradesh side of the border while the head was on the Nepal side.AUGUST 1997: Bhupinder Singh Bhuda of the Khalistan Commando Force (Panjwar group) was picked up in Nepal and the local police facilitated his arrest in India. He was staying in a local hotel and the police traced several calls he made through the hotel switch-board to Islamabad.October 1997: Arrests of six Jammu and Kashmir Islamic Front (JKIF) millitants who were on their way to Pakistan through the bi-weeklyflight to Karachi. They were travelling on fake documents issued by a travel agent based in the Pakistan embassy here. In one case an official of the embassy had issued a letter which stated that ``Mohammed Shafi Khan is a Pakistan citizen who has lost his passport and he should be allowed to return''. Nepal police confirms the incident and India and Nepal took up the matter with Pakistan. So far there has been no response.May 1996: In the case of the Lajpat Nagar bomb blasts on May 21, 1996, where 25 people died four members of the JKIF including Billal Baig and Javed Kirwal were arrested in Kathmandu barely a week later. They were then handed over to Delhi Police. 20 kg of RDX was recovered from them. Mirza Dilshad Baig is the Minister of Housing and Physical Training in Nepal. Records show that there are eight criminal cases registered against him in Gonda and Gorakhpur police stations in Uttar Pradesh for alleged gun running and gold smuggling. According to records, seven AK-47s were recovered from his vehicle while he was going to Mahendranagar in UP from Krishnanagar in Nepal. Police records say his associates in India include several politicians including a minister in the Kalyan Singh Government and a Samajwadi Party MLA.
