The London-based Amnesty released a new report in its headquarters Wednesday, "Nepal: Military assistance contributing to grave human rights violations", examining the military aid, arms transfers and training provided to Nepal's armed forces by various foreign governments during the armed conflict.

Besides India, the report also criticised the US and Britain for providing military assistance to Nepal, saying it "facilitated the killing, torture and abduction or 'disappearance' of thousands of civilians".

The report comes even as the Royal Nepalese Army said India is yet to resume military assistance to Nepal.

New Delhi suspended military aid and engagements with Kathmandu following the royal coup Feb 1 that saw King Gyanendra seize power with the help of the army.

Though Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh assured the monarch in April that non-lethal military supplies in the pipeline would be resumed, so far there has been no shipment.

The US and Britain, however, have resumed their engagements with the Nepalese security forces.

The rights body is urging the troika as well as other European governments providing military supplies to Nepal, such as Belgium, South Africa and France, to suspend "all transfers of arms and related logistical and security supplies to Nepal that can be used to commit grave human rights violations".

"With the conflict poised to escalate, any further military assistance would be highly irresponsible," Amnesty's Asia-Pacific Programme director Purna Sen said.

"Arms should not be exported as long as there is a clear risk that they might be used to commit serious human rights abuse. As has already been demonstrated, civilians will be those who suffer most."

As one of the telling examples, Amnesty says the INSAS rifles, infantry rifles indigenously manufactured in India and provided to the Royal Nepalese Army on a 70 percent subsidy, have been used in "grave human rights violations such as the murder of 19 unarmed Maoist suspects by Nepalese security forces in August 2003".

The incident, known as the Doramba killings, was cited by the rebels as one of the reasons for their breaking a ceasefire agreement and withdrawing from peace talks.

The victims were rounded up when they had reportedly gathered to celebrate a wedding, marched through the local market, and shot from close range. Though the army says they were terrorists and there were extenuating circumstances, the victims included a local schoolteacher who had been forced by the rebels to accommodate them.

Amnesty says India has given 25,000 5.56mm infantry rifles to Nepal. Both India and France have come under fire for supplying Lancer helicopter gunships, produced under licence from the French company Eurocopter. While Eurocopter manufactures crucial components for the helicopters, Amnesty says they are assembled and delivered by India.

These aircraft have been used by the Royal Nepalese Army "to attack mass meetings called by the Maoists in villages often resulting in the killing of civilians", the report said, urging the suspension of such supplies "until the security forces can demonstrate that they will uphold human rights".

The report also says India, the US and Britain have been providing training to Nepalese security forces without vetting procedures to "screen out those reasonably suspected of gross human rights violations".

Even the UN has drawn fire from Amnesty for its "failure to independently vet members of the Royal Nepalese Army sent to take part in UN peacekeeping missions despite reports that soldiers who were suspected of involvement in extra judicial executions have subsequently been deployed on UN duties".

A US team arrived in Kathmandu to train security personnel in humanitarian laws while a British team accompanied a consignment of explosive defusing equipment to teach security forces how to use them.