Maoist operative arrested for killing journalist Birendra Shah in Nepal

A Nepal Communist Party (Maoist) operative was arrested on Sunday for allegedly torturing and killing a journalist in 2007.

Superintendent of Police, Bara, Krishna Pangeni said Narendra Faujdar aka Kundan, 50, was arrested from his residence in Baragadhi Rural Municipality after his phone was tracked using the Global Positioning System.

Acclaimed print and broadcast journalist Birendra K Shah was allegedly killed by two Nepal Communist Party (Maoist) associates -- Narendra Faujdar and Ram Ekwal Sahani -- in October 2007.

Sahani is on the run.

The killing took place a year after the Maoists signed a 12-point peace deal with a seven-party alliance, representing the Nepal government, following a decade of insurgency.

"Faujdar, aided by local politicians, was in hiding. We were successful in nabbing him in the fourth attempt," said the senior police officer.

Faujdar will be present at the district court on Monday to deliver his court statement. He is one of the five accused in the case.

Journalist Shah was abducted in Pipara Bazaar in Bara district near the Nepal-India border on October 4, 2007 when he was on an assignment.

He was taken to a jungle area and tortured before being shot dead. Shah's body was discovered in Tangiya Basti in the district a month later.