KATHMANDU: CPN-Unified Socialist leader Ram Kumari Jhakri has branded those leaders – who decided to remain in the UML at the last hour by breaking away from Madhav Kumar Nepal faction — as coward generals, and said they could not be accepted as commanders.

Speaking at a program in Sindhuli Saturday, Jhankri said those who ran away from the war could not be commanders under any circumstance again. “Those running away from war could not be brought back to make them commanders; forgiveness for such war-criminals, who abandoned war, is forbidden,” she said.

She went ahead, “But if they surrender, doors should be opened for them. History is full of evidence where amnesty has been given to prisoners of war. So, doors shouldn’t be closed.”

She accused that betrayers’ kept others in confusion in relation to ideology for some time and gave a stung like a snake later.

Leaders such as Bhim Rawal, Asta Laxmi Shakya, Yuvaraj Gyawali, Ghanshyam Bhusal, Yogesh Bhattarai, Gokarna Bista, Surendra Pandey, Raghuji Pant, and Amrit Kumar Bohara were aligned to Madhav Kumar Nepal faction in the beginning but later decided to stay with the UML.

Jhakri said the party could not accept betraying leaders as commanders.