The Maoist death toll in Tuesday morning’s gun battle between rebels and the army reached 169 with the recovery of 17 more bodies around the army base camp, the Defence Ministry said Thursday.

The army is investigating reports that the rebels have carried their dead to two places in the neighbouring district of Salyan, the Ministry said. Search operation in the area is continuing, an official announcement said.

Security forces shot dead four more rebels in operations in Bardia and Chitwan Tuesday and Wednesday, the Ministry said.

Japan, meanwhile, Thursday supported the constitutional government crackdown on the Maoists. A spokesman of the Japanese government in Tokyo Thursday condemned the rebel killings of civilians, attacks on government buildings and infrastructure and called on the rebels to negotiate a peace.

Security forces for the first time this week launched a massive public campaign in the capital against the rebels asking the people to report against them.

Soldiers in military vehicles were hurling pamphlets from military trucks Wednesday and Thursday. Posters were pasted on city walls and houses abusing the Maoists while asking people to renounce violence.