The DAO said it has decided to keep Shah under observation for the period as he "disturbed" law and order. A source at the DAO said the office sent Shah to prison following the home minister´s order despite pressure from the UCPN (Maoist) leadership and UNMIN to release him. [break]
Shah is the brigade commander of the fifth division of People´e Liberation Army based in Rolpa.
UNMIN has teh responsibility to monitor the cantonments but incidents of Maoist combatants having brushes with law are not uncommon. In most cases, the UNMIN representatives try to pressurize the local administration to release those it arrests. The special UN mission maintains it cannot stop the Maoist combatants from going out of the cantonments and can only report when it finds that out. However, in several instances, UNMIN finds out only after incidents have been reported in the media.
The Area Police Office arrested him on Saturday in Kohalpur while he was engaged in an altercation in a hotel. Four people who were accompanying Shah fled.
The Maoists have charged that the DAO has attempted to disrupt the peace process by jailing Shah who had reached Kohalpur on personal business.
This is the first time that a corralled former Maoist combatant has been jailed for carrying a weapon outside cantonment.
Shah is being kept in district prison.
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