Kathmandu, July 10: Nepal's government today launched an investigation into the disappearance of a newspaper editor but alleged the journalist had in fact been a senior member of the Maoist rebels.

Paris-based watchdog reporters without borders has demanded information on Krishna Sen, the editor of the pro-Maoist Nepali-language weekly Janadesh (the people's mandate), who it said was detained by police on May 20 and killed in custody. An investigatory committee will have 15 days to complete a probe into the incident.

"The committee has been instructed to be free, fair and impartial," state minister for home affairs Devendra Raj Kandel told a news agency. However, he said Sen was not an innocent reporter but a senior Maoist terrorist who had been involved in state terrorism".

He said the government had put a 2.5 million-rupee (32,051-dollar) price on Sen's head for his involvement in Maoist activities, adding that Sen was an advisor to the Maoist leadership. "Journalists should not encourage the Maoist terrorists", he said.

The investigatory committee is headed by the home ministry's joint secretary, Sushil Shumshere Jungbahadur Rana, and will include senior officials from Nepal's intelligence department and attorney general's office, Kandel said.

The Federation of Nepalese Journalists said it would not accept the findings of the investigation because it would amount to the police probing their own conduct. Bureau Report