The Maoists are “sorry” for “holding” British officials in Baglung by their party members recently, Maoist supremo Prachanda said in an interview on Monday. “We are shocked with the incident which is against the party-policy.”

“From policy level, we have been banning abduction or physical attack upon a foreign citizen, tourist or government employees,” Prachanda said in an interview to Krishna Sen online news service, which is run by the rebels themselves.

Elaborating the abduction, Prachanda said, “Following the incident, we immediately ordered the concerned command to release those with due respect and they were released within few hours of our direction.”

“We are sorry for what happened against the party policy. We will make the real facts public after necessary investigation.”

On the allegations that the grass-root level of Maoists do not obey their own party’s policies, he said, “it is baseless that our party line is out of discipline. Once our directives reach the grass root level of cadres, they will know the party’s policy.”

In the interview, the Maoist strongman has further cautioned all bodies of the rebels not to repeat any incident like in Baglung, that involves a foreign national, tourists or civil servants. He further said the Maoists have the policy of not attacking even the US nationals.

On United Nations role in restoring peace in Nepal, he said, “It is positive that the UN has shown interest  to give a peaceful outlet to the present problem. We welcome a creative role from the UN.”

On possibility of peace talks, he said, “We have not closed the door for talks. However, except defeating the old regime through people’s war, there is no any possibility of peace talks for now. ”

On the Maoists’ announcement of October 21, he said those decisions have no relations with peace talks but were taken “to get ready for retaliation against the enemies.”