Pakistani Terror Outfits Pose Risk To India, May Use Nepal As Transit Route, Warns Nepalese President's Advisor: Report

Confirming long-standing concerns of Indian intelligence agencies, a top Nepalese official has warned that Pakistan-backed terror groups could leverage Nepal’s geograpical terrain to stage attacks on India, Times of India reported.

Speaking at a seminar of challenges to regional peace and security in Kathmandu, Sunil Bahadur Thapa, principal advisor to Nepal’s President and former industry minister, said UN-sanctioned Pakistan-based groups like LeT and JeM posed security threats to India, warning that they may exploit Nepal as a transit point for their nefarious objectives.

He pointed to past incidents, including the 1999 hijacking of Indian Airlines flight IC-814 from Kathmandu, to underscore Nepal’s susceptibility to being misused by terrorists.

Pakistani terror groups have been known to use Nepal as an infiltration route — examples include the 2013 arrest of Abdul Karim Tunda, a top LeT terrorist involved in over 40 bombings in India, who was held on the India-Nepal border in 2013, the report said.

The case of Mirza Dilshad Beg, an assassinated India-Nepali MP with alleged ties to Dawood Ibrahim and Pakistan’s ISI, is also an example of deep-rooted terror linkages in the region.

In another instance, Indian Mujahideen’s co-founder Yasin Bhatkal was nabbed by Nepalese police in 2013 and later handed over to Indian authorities.

More recently, in April 2024, UP ATS detained two Pakistani nationals - Mohammed Altaf Bhat and Sayyed Gajanfar - and an aide Nasir Ali near the Nepal border, highlighting the ongoing threat.

Further, in the recent Pahalgam terror attack, a Nepalese citizen was among those who were targeted on the basis of their Hindu faith by Pakistan-backed jihadis in April this year.

The seminar, organised by the Nepal Institute for International Cooperation and Engagement, convened top policymakers, ex-officials and experts to discuss the regional terror threat.

Participants reportedly emphasised that terrorism threatens not just security but economic stability and regional integration, and stressed the need for global unity and cooperation to combat terrorism, citing importance of India-Nepal coordination through joint border patrols and intelligence exchange.

The speaker panel featured prominent figures including Thapa, ex-defence minister Minendra Rijal, MP Chanda Chaudhary, and several former ministers, diplomats and military officials from Nepal.

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