KATHMANDU: Nepal’s army chief
Gen Rukmanga Katawal, who was sacked by the ruling
Maoist Party on Sunday, has
refused to accept the decision,
Students affiliated to Nepali Congress protest against the Nepal Maoist Party's decision to sack the army chief. (Reuters) |
according to TV reports. (
Watch
)
Times
Now says that an emergency meeting is being held by the top brass of
Nepal’s
army at the residence of Katawal over the
issue.
Earlier, ending days of speculation, Nepal's Maoists-led
government on Sunday fired Gen Rukmanga Katawal, replacing him with loyalist Gen
Kul Bahadur Khadka.
The announcement was made by prime minister
Prachanda's press adviser Om Sharma despite domestic and international calls
against such a move, including from India.
The 61-year-old Katawal,
who received his marching orders just three months before he is due to retire,
is expected to knock at Nepal's Supreme Court to stay the Maoists' hand, IANS
reported.
"It is a routine procedure," said a Nepal Army
brigadier-general who had served for 33 years.
"The general's
challenge to the government over the eight brigadier-generals the government
tried to retire last month is a pointer that Gen Katawal will go to court," said
a former lieutenant-colonel, who too declined to be named, IANS
said.
Recently, when the Maoist-led government sought to retire eight
brigadier-generals,
the army went to court under Katawal's orders to block the
move.
The dispute is still being heard with the Supreme Court
scheduled to deliver its verdict next week.
The general's task could
be made easier by the four other parties in the Maoist-led coalition government
who said the former guerrillas had taken the decision to retire Katawal Sunday
unilaterally, ignoring their advice to seek the opinion of the interim
parliament.
Soon after Maoist Information and Communications
Minister Krishna Bahadur Mahara announced that Katawal had been replaced with
Lt. Gen. Kul Bahadur Khadka, the opposition Nepali Congress called a meeting of
the other parliamentary parties to discuss a united reaction.
Meanwhile, rallies began to erupt in Kathmandu over the ouster of
the army chief.
While Maoist cadres expressed triumph, saying that
the general deserved his dismissal for defying the orders of the government, the
opposition rally flayed the Maoists for taking unilateral decisions and
jeopardising the peace process.
The Maoists' move came a fortnight
after they served an ultimatum to Gen Katawal, seeking his clarification on
recruitments by military, its "hastiness" in reinstating eight generals retired
by the government and its decision not to participate in the national games.
He had furnished his reply contending that he had not disobeyed the
government's directives on removing eight generals and halting recruitment in
the military
