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India Calls on Nepal to Check Riots
Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee Thursday, December 28, expressed serious concern over riots in neighboring Nepal which New Delhi said was engineered by anti-India elements and asked his counterpart G. P. Koirala to take firm steps to put an end to them, according to the Times of India Friday.
Vajpayee, who is on a holiday in a resort in the southwest state of Kerala, expressed serious concern over the outbreak of violence directed especially at Indians and establishments owned by them in Nepal, the daily said, quoted a bulletin issued by the Prime Minister's Office.
The prime minister talked over telephone with Koirala on Thursday, during which Vajpayee was told that these incidents appeared to be part of a conspiracy aimed at harming the traditionally close bonds of friendship between the two neighbors.
"We have set up a commission to inquire into its origins and find out if it has any external dimensions," the bulletin quoted Koirala as saying over the telephone.
In New Delhi, Foreign Secretary Lalit Mansingh spoke to his Nepalese counterpart Narain Shamsher Thapa to express India's "deep concern" at the turn of events in the country.
India is worried about the security and safety of its citizens in Nepal as demonstrators in Kathmandu have targeted Indian shops and tourists.
Raminder Singh Jassal, spokesman of the External Affairs Ministry, told the media here Thursday that "this is clearly the work of vested interests inimical to the India-Nepal friendship".
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