HEADLINE NEWS THE RISING NEPAL (DAILY)

Heavy casualties in Jumla, Gorkha attacks

By A Staff Reporter

KATHMANDU, Nov 15: Fifty six policemen and four soldiers were killed when Maoist terrorists launched simultaneous vicious attacks on Khalanga, the headquarters of Jumla district in far west Nepal, and on Tarkukot in Gorkha, in west Nepal, Thursday night.

Thirty-three policemen, including Deputy Superintendent of Police Shiva Narayan Mandal, and four soldiers were killed, in the attack on Khalanga. Another 30 policemen and some soldiers were wounded. They are undergoing treatment in hospitals in Pokhara and Kathmandu.
Also killed in Khalanga, the district headquarters, were Chief District Officer Damodar Pant, and two civilians in the battle that lasted throughout the night.

So far the bodies of 51 Maoist terrorists have been counted. According to our Khalanga correspondent, the terrorists, who came in the thousands at around 10 at night, attacked the district headquarters from all sides, using sophisticated weapons they had seized during previous raids on the army posts. This inflicted heavy damage on the Regional Police Unit, the District Police Office and other government offices in the remote hills of Karnali zone. The Jumla airport has been totally destroyed.

After attacking the police posts, they went after the Royal Nepalese Army barracks situated to the north of the headquarters, killing four armymen and injuring a few others.
Communication with Khalanga were cut off. And the night vision helicopters from Nepalgunj sent to reinforce the security forces had difficulty landing there as the terrorists laid siege to the district headquarters until they were repulsed Friday morning.

Security forces have so far recovered the dead bodies of 51 terrorists. The exact casualty on the Maoists' side is yet to be ascertained as the terrorists are believed to have carried away an equal number of bodies in dokos (baskets) and stretchers, according to locals. The casualty figure could, thus, rise to more than a hundred.

Security forces have recovered four SLR rifles, seven .303 rifles, one shot gun, seven other guns, bullets and spare parts of automatic weapons and explosives from Khalanga, according to the Defence Ministry.

About 800 security personnel, including the Devi Dutta Battalion of the Royal Nepalese Army and the Regional and District Units of the Nepal Police, are stationed in Khalanga. From Gorkha, our corespondent Kishore Jung Thapa reports that 23 policemen, including two Assistant Sub-inspectors died and 10 others were injured, when Maoist terrorists attacked the Tarkukot Police Post in the northern part of the mid-western hill district at about 10:15 Thursday night. The casualties on the Maoists' side has yet to be confirmed. The Maoists carried many of their dead and injured with them.

The terrorists had taken the police post under control within 30 minutes of fighting. Four policemen, out of the 59 manning the post, were on leave. According to the District Police Office, Gorkha, contact has been established with 24 other policemen of the post.

In yet other encounters with the Maoists, the Army is said to have inflicted damage on the Maoists in Dhangadhi in far west Nepal. The encounter took place at ward No. 8 in Dhangadhi municipality for about half an hour at midnight of Thursday after the security forces intensified their search operations following the brutal murder by the terrorists of ex-UML MP Chakra Prasad Dagaura Chaudhary. The security personnel and the Maoists also fought briefly in the wee hours of Friday morning in the jungles of Dhangadhi.

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