Security forces hammer rebels in Rolpa
62 Maoists killed in training camp raid, 6 die elsewhere

Post Report

KATHMANDU, March 17: In the biggest ever operation against the outlawed rebel Maoists, a joint team of Royal Nepal Army and police force gunned down at least 62 rebels by raiding a secret Maoist military training camp in Rolpa district. Six other rebels were also killed in Kanchanpur and Baglung districts in separate incidents on Saturday, the Defence Ministry announced here today.

Issuing a press statement, the Ministry said that the joint team of security forces today raided the military training camp in Gumchal area of the far-flung hill district of Rolpa in the mid-western region and killed the 62 Maoists, including an instructor, on the spot.

Three rebels each were also shot dead in separate encounters in Shankarpur area of Kanchanpur and Argal area of Baglung districts on Saturday, the statement added.

The forces also confiscated a large amount of firearms, ammunition, explosives and training equipment from the Maoist training centre in Gumchal. Government forces have launched a massive search operation around the area, the statement added.

Meanwhile, State Minister for Home Devendra Raj Kandel told The Kathmandu Post that the rebel toll in Rolpa could go higher as security forces were still searching the site for more rebel bodies.

This is the first time that such a large number of rebels have been confirmed killed in a single encounter with security forces since the government declared a state of emergency on November 26 last year.

Earlier, the soldiers and policemen had killed 68 rebels in several places of Achham, Dailekh and Kalikot districts of the mid-western region a couple of days after the February 17 attacks in Mangalsen, the district headquarters of Achham, and a nearby airport in Sanfebagar.

The rebels had killed more than 150 people, mostly security personnel, in Mangalsen and Sanfebagar in Achham, and had looted a large cache of sophisticated firearms from both the places.

The security forces also seized arms and ammunition, socket bombs and foodstuff hidden in several places of Pakuwa area of Parbat, Shankarpur area of Kanchanpur, Puranchaur area of Kaski and Ghyampesal area of Gorkha districts on Saturday.

The forces distributed the seized food grain to the local people, the Defence Ministry press statement said.

Similarly, bomb-disposal squads of the RNA on Saturday defused "banner-bombs" hung by the rebels at Sudal, Brahmayani, Dudhpokhari, Thimi, Dadhikot and Sanothimi areas of Bhaktapur district.

More than 3,000 people, mostly security personnel and Maoists, have already lost their lives since the Maoists waged their "People’s War" in 1996.

Journalists’ arrest denounced Over 70 journos arrested after emergency

By Tilak Pokharel

KATHMANDU, March 17 : The government has arrested more than 70 journalists after the state of emergency was declared in the country in late November, and yet the state’s aggression against the fourth estate is showing no sign of tapering off.

The latest arrest came at the Tribhuvan International Airport (TIA) Saturday when security personnel stopped and detained three persons, including editor of Mulyankan Monthly, Shyam Shrestha, from boarding a flight to New Delhi, India.

Other detainees include Dr Mahesh Maskey, the Deputy Co-ordinator of Intellectuals’ Solidarity Group, and Pramod Kafle, the President of GRINSO-Nepal.

Taranath Dahal, the General Secretary of the Federation of Nepalese Journalists (FNJ), the umbrella organisation of the country’s professional journalists, told The Kathmandu Post Sunday that the number has reached almost 75.

With such being the state of affairs, what else the government move would ignite than drawing criticisms, condemnations, or to put it differently, flak?

As more journalists start disappearing and land up at various government detention centres, statements from rights groups condemning the government move continue to pile up on the newspaper desks.

So much so that the government move has also infuriated members of the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), the constitutional human rights body.

Says Kapil Shrestha, a member of the commission: "More and more journalists are being arrested, which is damaging democratic Nepal’s image in the international arena," he said. "It is unbecoming of the government to continue arresting journalists. It should stop."

Shrestha’s arrest came two weeks after the abduction-style arrest of the editor of the Sanghu Weekly, Gopal Budhathoki, whose whereabouts is still unknown. Budhathoki was "abducted" by the security personnel on the night of March 3 when he was on the way towards his house after the day’s office works.

Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba informed the House recently that Budhathoki was "arrested" by the government. This was the second time Budhathoki was arrested after the imposition of emergency. He was first held on December 17 and was kept in custody for two days. On the same day, the government also had held publisher of Deshantar Weekly, Bandhu Thapa.

Meanwhile, an army source confirmed that Shrestha and two others arrested Saturday have been kept in the military custody in the Army Headquarters, Bhadrakali.

The army source also hinted that the detainees including Shrestha could be released by Monday.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Deuba today assured a delegation of three left leaders that Shrestha would be released "soon".

The members in the delegation were General Secretary of the main opposition CPN-UML, Madhav Kumar Nepal; General Secretary of the National People’s Front, Navaraj Subedi and President of United People’s Front, Amik Sherchan.

"The PM has said he would release Shrestha after consulting with the administration," Sherchan told The Kathmandu Post. However, PM Deuba was reluctant to disclose the whereabouts of Shrestha, he said.

Wife of editor Shrestha, Mukta, labelled her husband’s arrest as an "open abduction" by the state. "Even the Prime Minister used to send his people to seek help from my husband when the peace talks were going on," an anxious Mukta told this reporter over telephone. "But now the same government has arrested the same person in ‘abduction-style’. And we still don’t know his whereabouts."

The current of journo arrests started hours before the state of emergency was declared on November 26. About a dozen journalists affiliated with the newspapers and magazines close to the outlawed Maoists such as Janadesh Weekly, Janadisha Daily and Dishabodh Monthly, were the first targets.

The NHRC member Shrestha, said that the commission would write a letter to the Prime Minister’s Office, Home Ministry and the Defence Ministry, demanding their release after the office resumes on Monday.

Heavy downpour, hailstorm disrupt life, damage crops

Post Report

KATHMANDU, March 17 : The three hours of incessant rains that were accompanied by hailstorm not only disrupted normal life in the capital city Sunday evening, but also damaged crops in the surrounding areas.

Soon after it started around 5 p.m, people returning towards their houses were rushing for temporary cover and prevent themselves from being drenched and hit by hailstones—some as big as marbles. The mid-monsoon-type rains also disrupted the traffic movement.

Tulsi Narayan Lakhemaru, a farmer from Bhaktapur, Jagati, told The Kathmandu Post over telephone that the hailstorm has damaged dozens of acres of wheat, potato, and other vegetable crops in Bhaktapur.

Unconfirmed reports from other parts of the Valley said that hailstones have also damaged crops in almost all the areas surrounding the capital city.

Weathermen at the government’s meteorological forecasting division could not be reached for comments.

The incessant rains literally caused chaos in some thoroughfares of the capital city like Maitighar, where the road remained waterlogged for hours, said a city resident, who stopped by a shop and waited the rains to stop. The knee-deep water also halted the movement of the capital’s busy traffic there for a brief while.

Nepali team completes a piece of ‘world’s biggest Thangka’

Post Report

KATHMANDU, March 17 : Several pieces of paintings are finally being readied in order to prepare world’s largest Thangka - a Buddhist painting work depicting the life and times of Lord Buddha.

On Sunday, the Kathmandu Prayer Committee, one of the two Nepali committees that are contributing two separate pieces for the big Thangka project, handed over its work to the Nepal Bouddha Samrakshyan Samiti.

The other Nepali team of artists has not completed its work, though. The Samiti is collecting pieces of the Thangka paintings from about a dozen countries that are working together in the project. It plans to display it in the capital city before sending them to Japan, where all the pieces would be put together and combine them to make the big Thangka.

Tibetan artist Kalsang Tsultrim and Tenzin Gawa created the Thangka piece that weighs four tonnes, and is 5.5 metres long and 7.75 meters high. The particular piece of Thangka is a result of continuous stitching and embroidery works of 75 days.

Nepal is one of the 12 countries that are working together to create this masterpiece of Thangka. When completed and put together, it would be 55 metres wide and 77 metres high. According to Wangchuk Tsering, Representative of the Office of Tibet, "The Thangka will be taken around the world to conduct public shows so that Buddha’s message of peace and tranquillity is spread far and wide against the backdrop of the world fighting disease, famine and warfare".

The concept was developed in 1994. The project is being overseen jointly by Mandala 21st Century Japan and the Nepal Bouddha Dharma Samrakshan Samiti.