Kathmandu: Nepal'sMaoists today (Feb 15,2007) denied an Indian newspaper report that one of theircadres was arrested while trying to buy arms from an extremist organisation andsaid it was a conspiracy to malign them.

"The reports are utterly false," said Maoistspokesperson and chief of their parliamentary party Krishna Bahadur Mahara.

"Our party has no member called Pasang Lama. Wechallenge (the people giving such information) to produce evidence. We areready to prove them wrong," Mahara told sources.

The strong denial came after Nepal's biggest private mediahouse Kantipur reproduced a report in the Times of India of Feb 14 that saidthe Indian Army had arrested a man in Jammu and Kashmir while negotiating withbanned extremist group Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) to buy weapons.

The man reportedly said he was a Nepali from Humla districtin the extreme north and was a Maoist.

The report quoted Indian defence spokesperson V.K. Mathur assaying that Pasang Lama, who was posing as a pashmina trader, was arrested fromBinner village along with a Kashmiri, Mohammad Younis, identified as a courierand linkman for the LeT.

The Indian official also reportedly said Lama revealedduring interrogation that Maoists had links with terrorists operating in Jammu and Kashmir.

"Our party has no need to buy arms at this juncture,when we have made such huge progress in the peace process," Mahara said inreaction to the reports. 

"Pasang Lama is definitely not a member of our ownparty. It is a manoeuvre by vested interests to tarnish our name,"he said.

The Maoists celebrated the 11th anniversary of their armeduprising this year by returning to parliament as a mainstream political partyand pledging to take part in elections and abide by the results. They have alsobarracked their soldiers in camps and begun to lock up arms under thesupervision of the UN.

UN envoy Ian Martin, who is heading the peace mission in Nepal,has said the arms lockup is a credible process and would be completed byFriday. After that, the way will be cleared for the Maoists to join the Government.

Earlier this year, Maoists' foreign affairs in-charge C.P.Gajurel had said that though his party retained its links with other communistgroups abroad, the links were based on ideology only.

The rebels have been reiterating that they want harmoniousrelations with India andtheir return to peaceful politics will help India tackle Indian extremistgroups.