News from Nepal (II)

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More news from a private "intelligence" travel & security website that a friend of mine owns. All info have been verified through reliable sources.

4/13/2002
160 Killed in Fighting, Interior Minister´s Home Attacked
Marking the worst battle in a six-year-old guerrilla war, Nepalese authorities on April 13 raised the death toll from a night of fighting to 160 - many of them police beheaded by Maoist rebels. The dramatic jump in the death - the government had reported 54 deaths on April 12 - was revealed by local officials to journalists who traveled overnight by road to the two remote towns in western Nepal that saw most of the fighting on April 11-12. Police Inspector Padam Vohra said that 60 policemen were killed while defending the house of Interior Security Minister Khum Bahadur Khadka from a rebel attack. Another 27 policemen who surrendered were beheaded, and two were burned alive, he said. About 30 police survived. Vohra said 11 policemen were killed in an attack on a police station in the nearby town of Lamahi. The two attacks set off overnight gunbattles that left hundreds of rebels dead, he said. The minister´s house was gutted and blackened by fire. Two burned sedans were parked outside the 10-foot-high boundary wall. On the ground were blotches of blood, shreds of police uniforms, destroyed sofas and cupboards, and twisted, blackened bicycles. Shards of broken glass were scattered across the town. The 120 paramilitary police guarding the house were surrounded by thousands of rebels, witnesses said. ``They are so ferocious that they killed officers ... even after they surrendered,´´ Vohra said. ``They were stripped naked, then paraded, and finally beheaded with khukris, he said, referring to the traditional Nepali knives. The towns where the attacks occurred are in Dang district, about 190 miles west of the capital, Katmandu. It was the worst single night of violence since the Maoist insurgency erupted in 1996 in the poor Himalayan country, which is ruled by an elected government under a constitutional monarchy.
4/12/2002
12 Maoist Rebels Reportedly Killed in Clashes
At least 12 Maoist rebels battling Nepali government security forces have been killed over the past 24 hours in clashes across the Himalayan kingdom, the Defense Ministry said on April 11. A Ministry spokesman said seven guerrillas were killed late on April 10 in two battles in Bardiya district in west Nepal. The other five guerrillas were killed elsewhere in the country. Nepal deployed its army against the rebels in November after the insurgents broke a truce with a string of deadly attacks on government posts. The guerrillas are fighting to overthrow the constitutional monarchy and to set up a one-party communist republic in the impoverished, landlocked country famous for its towering mountains, including the world´s highest, Mount Everest. More than 3,000 people have been killed since the rebels launched their violent campaign six years ago.
4/12/2002
Maoist Rebels Kill 35 Police, 15 Civilians in Attacks
Nepal´s Maoist insurgents killed at least 50 people, mostly policemen, in fresh attacks on security posts in the west of the Himalayan nation, the country´s junior home (interior) minister said on April 12. ´They attacked police posts at Satbariya and Lamahi villages in Dang district in west Nepal and more than 50 people were killed,´ Devendra Raj Kandel said. Kandel said the dead included 35 policemen in Satbariya and 13 in Lamahi. ´The others were passengers in a bus that was set ablaze by the Maoists,´ he added. The guerrillas launched attacks on Lamahi, Satbariya and Bhaluwang, some 450 km (280 miles) west of Kathmandu, late on April 11 and gunbattles went on for over three hours. It was the biggest attack by the insurgents since late February when 34 policemen were killed. The Maoist rebels, who are fighting to overthrow the country´s monarchy and replace it with a one-party communist regime, have stepped up their hit-and-run attacks on security posts in recent weeks. Nepal has imposed a state of emergency to quell the revolt and has given the army sweeping powers to crack down on the rebels.
4/8/2002
24 Rebels Reportedly Killed in Clashes
At least 24 Maoist rebels have been killed over the past 24 hours in fresh gunbattles across Nepal, a defense ministry official said on April 7. Ministry spokesman Tana Gautam said 13 guerrillas were killed on April 6 in Bardiya district where the rebels had set off a landmine, killing five soldiers. Gautam said four guerrillas were killed in Rukum district and two in neighboring Dang district in west Nepal. Others died in separate gunbattles elsewhere across Nepal. The rebels, who walked out of peace talks last November and launched a wave of attacks on security posts, are campaigning to overthrow the constitutional monarchy and set up a communist republic in Nepal. Nepal declared a state of emergency and called in the army, giving soldiers sweeping powers of search and detention to crush the insurgency. More than 3,000 people have been killed in the violence that started in early 1996 and has crippled the economy of the Himalayan kingdom, one of the world´s poorest countries.
4/6/2002
Troops Kill 14 Rebels in Clashes
Nepali soldiers have killed 14 Maoist rebels in separate assaults across the Himalayan kingdom since Friday, the Defense Ministry said on April 6. A ministry spokesman said troops shot dead five Maoist insurgents in an encounter on April 5 in Bardiya in west Nepal. Six more were killed in the nearby Jajarkot, Sallyan and Parbat districts of west Nepal, the center of a bloody Maoist rebellion which has claimed more than 3,000 lives across the impoverished nation since 1996. The rest died elsewhere. The rebels are trying to pull down the constitutional monarchy and set up a communist republic, saying the parliamentary democracy has failed to solve the poor nation´s problems. Nepal ordered out its soldiers to crush the guerrillas last November after they walked out of a peace process and attacked several security posts.
 
It is getting worse by the day. Bad and sad news but thanks for posting it, Pierre. Little wonder the folks at BirGorkha are nervous.
 
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