KATHMANDU: The simmering differences among their top leaders could now be percolating to the Red Army of the Maoists in Nepal with reports of mass defection from the "People’s Liberation Army".

According to the local media, nearly 1000 guerrillas from the PLA’s Fourth Division have left two camps in Nawalparasi district in western Nepal, near the Indian border, where they had been confined since the Maoists signed a peace agreement with the then seven-party government last year.

Kantipur, a private television channel, said on Tuesday that a platoon commander of the PLA, Kul Bhattarai, who used the nom de guerre Kusum, held a press conference in Narayangarh town. Kusum reportedly said that Red soldiers, frustrated at not receiving the monthly allowance of NRs 3000 promised by the government, as well as lack of medical treatment and other amenities, were leaving the camps.

Kusum also alleged that many of the PLA fighters were still suffering from injuries received during the insurgency. He himself, he said, had an untreated bullet injury in the leg.

The UN mission in Nepal, that is overseeing the arms and combatants of the army, said it had not received any report about large-scale movement of Maoist soldiers near the camps. More information was not available immediately due to the bad weather that has triggered floods in parts of Nepal. Kusum’s allegations however were denied by the Maoist in-charge of the Nawalparasi camps, Pratiksha, who said the exiting soldiers were on home leave and had not deserted.

This is not the first controversy about a possible revolt in the Maoist rank and file. Last week, the same TV channel had interviewed a defector, who said several hundreds of PLAs, unhappy with the way the Maoists were acting after joining the government, had decided to break away and start a new movement.