The clashes between the Maoists and the security forces Sunday night at Sandhikharka, the district headquarters of Argakhachi in western Nepal left 68 security personnel including one civilian dead while the terrorists have kidnapped around one hundred security personnel, latest reports said.

The Maoists too faced heavy reverses in the clashes that started at ten in the night and got protracted till four in the morning, the Defence Ministry said. The Maoists had carried away their friends who were killed in the clashes. They destroyed all the government office buildings in Sandhikharka apart from torching the government vehicles.

The terrorists, nearly three thousand of them had surrounded the area and had trapped the security personnel, eyewitnesses from the district said.

The attack was the second one in a series after the lifting of the emergency on August 28. The first attack against the security personnel came Saturday night at the Bhiman Area Police Post in Sindhuli claiming the lives of 49 policemen and injuring 21 others.

The Maoists too faced heavy reverses during the clashes in Argackhachi. Security personnel have informed that they discovered 50 dead bodies of the Maoists buried in the banks of the nearby river.

In the clashes the Maoists had shot dead the policemen from the back even after they laid down their arms and surrendered.

The injured have been taken to the Lumbini Zonal Hospital, Bhim Hospital in Bhairahawa, Western Regional Hospital and Bir Hospital and Birendra Sainik Hospital in Kathmandu.

The security personnel had called for back up, which reached the district only in the morning. The night vision helicopter that reached the district headquarters in the morning had returned after not being able to land because of the smoky atmosphere at the scene of fighting.

Two night vision helicopters that had headed towards Sandhikharka with additional security personnel had been fired by Maoists after which one of the helicopters landed at Bhairahawa and the other at Tamghas of Gulmi district.

The helicopters had returned to Sandhikharka after they were repaired. The security personnel killed in Sunday’s clashes were assistant police inspectors Hari Krishna Dixit (Lamjung) and Hom Bahadur Rana (Simalpani, Argakhachi), police havaldars Dhal Prasad Tiwari (Baglung), Ram Chandra Dhungana (Kaski), Yam Bahadur Rana (Kaski), Khom Bahadur Pangeni (Palpa), Binash Basnet (Gorkha), Pritiman Rana (Nawalparasi), Syam Puna (Parbat), Surya Bahadur Thapa (Pyuthan), Lal Bahadur Kunwar (Syangja) and Tej Bahadur Nepali (Rupandehi).

Similarly the police jawanas killed in the terrorist attack are Hom Bahadur Darlami (Gulmi), Prabhulal Chaudhari (Morang), Resmi Raj Aryal (Palpa). Dan Bahadur Gurung (Lamjung), Mahendra Khadka (Morang), Abadhesh Mumar Mishra (Nawalparasi), Rajesh Yadav (Rautahat), Bharat Thakuri (Siddharthanagar Municipality), Rudra Bogati (Gorkha), Prem Bahadur Rana (Tanahu), Tej Bahadur Gurung (Gulmi), lal Bahadur Kunwar (Syangja), Hari Lal (Rupandehi), Tej Bahadur Nepali Rupandehi), Gun Bahadur Mahato (Nawakparasi), Shiva Pandey (Tanahu), Raju Aryal ( Bensisahar, Lamjung), Pritam Punam (Gulmi) and Sundar Lohani (Nawalparasi). nepalnews.com am Sept 10