Capture Kathmandu

In July 2004, Maoists were showing off guns including M-16 A2s, SLRs and even a belt-ammo Belgian Minimi that they had captured from the royal Army in Achham. The display was interrupted by an army helicopter firing warning shots.

In the immediate aftermath, Janardan Sharma who has since gone on to become a finance minister grandiosely announced that the Maoists would soon be capturing Kathmandu, then the world.

Excerpts of the report published 20 years ago this week in issue #207 30 July – 5 August 2004:

Maoist leader let off a short burst from a captured M-16 and had just started on his speech at a school compound in Achham's Binayak village on 21 July when there was the sound of an approaching helicopter.

The leaders ran for cover, and so did the hundreds of people assembled at the school. From high above, the army's Indian-built Lancer attack helicopter let off a burst of machinegun fire. The farmers remember all too well a chopper attack on a similar meeting at the exact same spot on 12 April when six villagers were killed.

A Maoist aimed at the helicopter with his machinegun, but it was out of range. As the meeting resumed, politburo member of the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist), Janardan Sharma (alias Prabhakar) spoke into a loudspeaker: "We are in our final preparations to make an attack on the centre...we will capture Kathmandu, and then move on to seize New Delhi and Washington."

All present applauded and if there was disbelief, no one showed it. Later, some villagers told us, "Even the stones here are Maoist, so how can we defy them?"

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