Kathmandu: Nepal may mobilise the army to ensure the peaceful conduct of the key constituent assembly poll, a move that could possibly strain the government's relation with the Maoists and derail the election on April 10.

Nepal's Minister for Peace and Reconstruction Ram Chandra Poudel hinted at the possibility of deployment of the Nepal Army personnel during the polls, if the law and order situation becomes unfavourable.

The Communist Party of Nepal-Maoist (CPN-Maoist) have accused the army of serious human rights abuses including torture, abduction and murder of its cadres during the decade-long insurgency in the Himalayan nation.

Poudel, who is also the interim governments peace talks convener, said that it was the responsibility of the state to hold the polls at any cost. He said the government might have to use the army in the last resort if the peace and security situation becomes uneasy, the Kantipur online reported today.

Taking a similar line, Shyam Sundar Gupta, Minister for Commerce, Industries and Supplies said that the leaders of the seven parties of the ruling alliance have reached an agreement to deploy the army if attempts were made to disrupt the poll. "If there is no respite to killings and abductions of candidates, agreement has been reached to deploy the army," Gupta was quoted as saying in the local media.

The CPN-Maoist have threatened to deploy its former guerrilla's if the interim government allows the mobilasation of the army during the election process. The United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights - Nepal (OHCHR) produced a detailed report last year into the detention, torture and disappearance of 49 suspected Maoists from an army barracks in the capital in 2003.

Source : PTI