Author:
Publication: The Associate Press
Date: April 12, 2001
A top Pakistani diplomat was detained
for questioning in Nepal after police found 35 pounds of explosives in
a home where he was staying, an official said.
Mohammed Arsad Cheema, first secretary
at the Pakistani Embassy in Katmandu, has denied any knowledge of the explosives
and claimed they were planted, said Madhav Thapa, an official with the
district police.
They were discovered in a police
raid on the home, which belonged to another Pakistani national. The diplomat
had been staying there for the last five days ahead of his scheduled departure
from Nepal on Friday, following a three-year assignment.
Nepal's laws allow diplomats to
be questioned in custody for up to three days, though they have immunity
from prosecution. Cheema was expected to be expelled following his interrogation.
Cheema told police he was framed
by intelligence agents from India. India and Pakistan are military rivals
that have fought two wars over the disputed Himalayan region of Kashmir.
Since an Indian Airlines jetliner
was hijacked a few minutes after taking off from Katmandu by suspected
Kashmiri separatists in December 1999, the Indian government has repeatedly
claimed that Pakistani intelligence agents are operating out of Nepal.
In December 1999, police in Nepal
arrested a junior Pakistani diplomat suspected of running a fake currency
racket. Asim Saboor was caught selling fake Indian currency to an undercover
officer in a park in Kathmandu.
