THE Nepalese government signed a peace deal with the Maoist Communist Party of Nepal (CPN) on Thursday, marking the historic occasion with a ceremony in the capital Kathmandu today.

Under the terms of the three-point agreement, the Nepal Communist Party (NCP) government has agreed to end a ban on the CPN and release all of its political prisoners, dropping all cases against them.

In return the CPN agreed to renounce violence and enter peaceful negotiations, a government statement said.

The CPN is a breakaway of the Unified Maoist Party that had engaged in armed struggle against the then royalist government between 1996 and 2006 — when a UN-negotiated peace accord was struck.

Nepal’s Prime Minister Khadga Prasad Sharma Oli declared the CPN a criminal organisation in 2019, blaming it for bombings and killing civilians.

He appeared in today’s ceremony with CPN leader Netra Bikram Chand — better known by his rebel name, Biplav.

Nepal faces a political crisis after Mr Oli dissolved parliament, leading the NCP, itself formed by a merger of communist parties in 2018, to splinter into two factions. Earlier this week the Supreme Court reinstated parliament, while calls for his resignation continue to grow.