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| Kathmandu Monday March 18, 2002 Chaitra 05, 2058. |
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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.
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