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Kathmandu Tuesday January 29, 2002 Magh 16, 2058.
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21 rebels shot dead, SP among
4 policemen killed in landmine blast
Post Report
KATHMANDU, Jan 28: Twenty-one Maoist rebels and
four policemen, including an SP, were killed in separate incidents in Teharathum and
Kailali districts respectively in the span of twelve hours. Three rebels and two policemen
also sustained serious injuries in the incidents, said our correspondents.
Twenty-one Maoists were shot dead in an
encounter with the soldiers of the Royal Nepal Army (RNA) at Sankrinti Bazaar, about 30
kilometres north-east of Myanglung, the district headquarters of Teharathum on Sunday,
said our reporter Lila Ballav Ghimire from Dhankuta quoting security officials.
The security officials said the rebels were
killed when the soldiers retaliated to rebel fire. None of the soldiers were reported hurt
in the clash, the officials added. The RNA forces also arrested three injured Maoists from
the scene of encounter. The forces seized four 303 rifles, one country-made pistol, five
12-borred guns, and Maoist literature from the site.
In the other incident, four police personnel,
including Superintendent of Police Ram Binay Singh, were killed Monday morning when a
landmine laid by the rebels exploded near Syaule Bazaar of Phulbari VDC, according to our
reporter Manmohan Swanr from Dhangadhi, the district headquarters of Kailali. The blast
site is located about 10-km south-east of Dhangadhi. The rebels had planted the explosives
beneath a culvert. SP Ram Binay Singh hailed from Rajbiraj in Saptari district. Singh is
the second high-ranking police officer to be killed by the rebels since the Maoist
insurgency broke out six years ago. Some six months back in Dang, the rebels had killed
Senior Superintendent of Police, Parameshwor Sijapati.
SP Singh and two head constables—Prem
Bahadur Raut and Rajendra Joshi—died instantly while the other policeman, Constable
Devraj Bhatta, succumbed to his injuries while undergoing treatment at the Seti Zonal
Hospital. The condition of two other policemen—Assistant Sub-Inspector of Police Ram
Bahadur Chand and Head Constable Dan Singh Kadayat—is reported to be critical.
A team of eleven policemen, headed by SP Singh,
had gone to Phulbari VDC after receiving information about a ‘banner bomb’ hung
by the rebels at Syaule Bazaar. The landmine exploded when the police van (Ba 1 Jha 5021)
almost finished crossing the culvert bordering Urma and Phulbari VDCs at around 10 a.m.
The van has been completely damaged. The injured policemen were airlifted to Kathmandu,
while the dead bodies have been handed over to the families for the last rites.
The policemen in Dhangadhi paid homage to their
dead colleagues before the bodies were flown out.
It is learnt that a large number of army men
have been mobilised in the area for hunting down the rebels responsible for the killings.
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