Lashkar, Jaish may use Nepal route to strike India: Nepalese official raises alarm

Several terrorists from Pakistan-based outfits like Lashkar-e-Taiba and Jaish-e-Mohammed have been arrested while attempting to enter India through Nepal in the past.

A Nepalese official has warned Pakistan-based terrorist groups like Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) and Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) may use the Nepal route to target India.

Sunil Bahadur Thapa, Advisor to the President of Nepal, said these groups pose serious risks to India and could use Nepal as a transit route, as per a report by News18.

Notably, India and Nepal share a 1,751 km-long open border, and has largely a porous border, operating with minimal security checks. This enables terrorists to infiltrate India, often using forged Nepalese documents to conceal their identities.

Several terrorists from Pakistan-based outfits like Lashkar-e-Taiba and Jaish-e-Mohammed have been arrested while attempting to enter India through Nepal in the past.

In the 1999 hijacking of Indian Airlines Flight IC-814, the aircraft, which was en route from Kathmandu to New Delhi, was hijacked after the perpetrators boarded with weapons. This had highlighted serious lapses in security at Kathmandu’s Tribhuvan International Airport.

Thapa raised the alarm, speaking at a high-level seminar organised by the Nepal Institute for International Cooperation and Engagement (NIICE) in Kathmandu on July 9, that focused on addressing terrorism threats in South Asia and saw participation from key regional experts and policymakers.

He said terror attacks in India often have spillover effects on Nepal, undermining regional peace and stability, while pointing to Pakistan’s support for terrorism as a major hurdle to the effectiveness of SAARC and broader regional integration.

The seminar urged stronger counter-terrorism cooperation, including stricter action against money laundering, enhanced intelligence sharing, and joint patrolling of borders with India, the report said.

It also called on regional actors to avoid applying double standards while tackling terrorism. At the seminar, India’s Operation Sindoor in the aftermath of Pahalgam attack, in which the Indian armed forces struck nine terror camps in Pakistan and PoK, was discussed as a forceful and effective response to cross-border threats.

Nepal vulnerability owing to incidents like the IC-814 hijacking and the LeT-led Pahalgam attack that killed 26 civilians, including one Nepali national, was also highlighted.