China Responsible If Any Harm Comes To Me: Nepali Leader

Nepali Congress Parliamentary leader Jeevan Bahadur Shahi on Sunday said he felt threatened after China responded aggressively to a report by his team, which showed that the communist nation had encroached on Nepal’s land in Humla.

“I want to reiterate that China will be responsible if anything unfortunate happens to me,” Shahi said in an interview on Khabarhub.

Though Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli-government had denied the allegations, last month, Shahi, leader of opposition in Karnali Province, had said China had erected a pillar and the government officials had said they were not consulted about such issues.

“The Junge Pillar 12 has been recently erected by China. The government officials say they have not been consulted about such issues. The Pillars 5.1 and 6.1 have been enclosed as there are Chinese security forces,” he said.

After Shahi’s briefing to the press and submission of the report to the government, China has not only protested it as biased, the Chinese Embassy in Kathmandu responded to it aggressively by writing a letter to the Nepali Congress party.

The Nepal opposition leader in his interview stated that China’s response could jeopardise Nepali Congress’ relationship with China as well as negatively impact the Nepal-China relationship, while terming the letter sent by the Chinese Embassy as ‘undiplomatic’.

“The language used in the Embassy’s letter looks like a threat and it seems to undermine my position and personality,” he told Khabarhub.

He mentioned that China had constructed nine buildings in Lolungjong, Hilsa, which remained in Nepali territory, as Nepal had built a road 2 km from Lolungjong in 2009.

China had also arranged to make the Chinese time appear in Nepali territory, which was 4 km from Nepal-China border. As the area shows the Chinese time zone, Nepali choppers cannot fly to their own area.

“The Chinese officials had come to the steep sides at Gappudocha and had confessed China’s land does not reach up to the point we were constructing the road then. The road lies 2 km west-north from the place China has constructed the buildings now,” he said.

He further stated that while the Nepal government said the land was not encroached, when his team reached the site, they saw the border is encroached, as the buildings constructed in Lolungjong could be seen from Pillar 12 in the hills of Limi Lapcha.

“While observing through GPS at the pillar, we find it arranged in such a way that two kilometers inward Nepal is depicted as a Chinese area. It should have shown China on the next side of the pillar and Nepal on another side of it, but it is not so there,” Shahi said in his interview with Khabarhub.

Criticising the Nepal government’s silence over the report, Shahi lamented that the government has expressed its loyalty to China by not claiming Nepal’s land, and even government officials who have been there are reluctant to speak about it.

“We have submitted the letter of public concern requesting the government to send a team of experts to talk with China. We submitted it to Prime Minister KP Oli, but we have not got any response to date,” he said.

The parliamentary leader also said he will resign from his post if his findings are proven wrong, and challenged China to provide evidence that it had not encroached Nepal’s land.

Shahi appealed that Nepali Congress should express concern over the matter through the Chinese Ambassador in Kathmandu. (ANI)