British spies knowingly allowed Maoist rebels to be tortured and killed during a UK-backed intelligence operation conducted during Nepal’s bitter civil war, a new book alleges.
It claims that MI6 agents were complicit in torture and the death in custody of prisoners who were interrogated during the mission, Operation Mustang, which ran from 2002 to 2006.
Evidence contained in Kathmandu, by Thomas Bell, claims that the British government bankrolled, trained and equipped Nepal’s government for an anti-Maoist crackdown designed to arrest and turn Communist guerrillas seeking to overthrow the monarchy and establish a People’s Republic.
A total of 16,000 Nepalese died in the decade-long war, which ended in November 2006. About 1,200 people are still missing.
Several of those interrogated in Operation Mustang died