Five Indian police officers were stopped by Parsa district police at Parwanipur in Birgunj, about 15km away from Raxaul border point, as they were driving in a police jeep (MPO 3 A 1915) with an AK-47 rifle and its ammunitions on Friday.  

Sources said one of the Indian police officers identified himself as SP Narwada Prasad Warkade from Rewa district in Madhya Pradesh. Upon enquiry by Parsa police, Warkade and his men reportedly explained that they had reached there by mistake.

One Nepali police officer who was at the scene said that the Indian officers were apparently on their way to Kathmandu to visit Pashupatinath Temple. “But they drove back to India when we demanded that they change their police uniforms and submit the rifle and bullets,” the officer said.

A team of Indian police driving police jeep inside Nepali territory with an assault rifle has raised suspicions of many, and rightly so because all vehicular movements along the Miteri Bridge at Birgunj-Raxaul border point are currently being obstructed by the agitating Madhes-centric parties. “Even rickshaws and ambulances cannot cross the bridge. They (Indian police team) might have been assisted by the protesters, or else they could not enter at all,” a local man said.

A Madhesi protester, meanwhile, claimed that the Indian police jeep was able to cross the Miteri Bridge with the help of the protesters themselves who are currently blocking traffic at the border point.