Monday, August 22, 2005

Nepal king tours rebel areas after landmine blast

22 Aug 2005 12:13:39 GMT
Source: Reuters












Nepali students shout slogans during a demonstration against the king and protest against the price hike on petroleum products, in Kathmandu, August 22, 2005.
REUTERS/GOPAL CHITRAKAR
(Recasts with king's tour) KATHMANDU, Aug 22 (Reuters) - Maoist rebels blew up a police vehicle in western Nepal on Monday, killing four policemen, as King Gyanendra began a tour of an area further to the west, officials said. The Maoists, who have been fighting to replace the constitutional monarchy with a communist republic for the past nine years, set off a mine under the police vehicle near the town of Butwal, 300 km (185 miles) west of Kathmandu. "It was a big mine. The blast has caused a huge crater on the ground and the vehicle has broken into pieces," a police officer told Reuters by phone. A palace official said the king would spend a week touring areas in and around Kalikot, 600 km (375 miles) west of Kathmandu, where the army lost at least 55 soldiers in a fight with the Maoist rebels two weeks ago. It was the bloodiest clash between the two sides in the past one year. Twenty-six guerrillas died in the clash sparked by a rebel raid on an army base. The king was not scheduled to go to Butwal. "The objective of the visit is to assess the situation and meet the people," the official said, without giving details. Maoist violence has escalated in the impoverished Himalayan kingdom after King Gyanendra took control of the government nearly seven months ago, saying politicians had failed to tackle the insurgents. The rebels said they had captured 60 soldiers and a large arms cache after the Kalikot gunbattle on Aug. 7 and 8. The army said the soldiers were missing and troops were hunting for them. Nepal's leading human rights group, INSEC, said in a statement late on Sunday that 27 soldiers captured after that battle were safe in rebel custody, quoting a local journalist who had met the captives in a remote mountain village in west Nepal. It posted photographs on the Web site, www.inseconline.org, of the soldiers, some with bandages, but said nothing about the remaining soldiers. More than 12,500 people have been killed since the revolt began in 1996. Sphere: Related Content
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