Security personnel killed 70 Maoists when they tried to ambush them in Salyan disrict overnight, the Gorkhapatra said Friday quoting the Defence Ministry and the Military News Department. Soldiers repulsed another attempt by rebels to blow up a repeater station at Nuwakot village in Syangjha district overnight, the Defence Ministry said.

Nobody was injured overnight when the army stopped a bus that attempted to defy a curfew order in Syangjha, the Defence Ministry said. Overnight curfew was slapped in at least five of the nation’s 75 administrative districts as security personnel tried to quell a fresh break of Maoist violence unleashed nation-wide last Friday.

The army has encircled Maoists at Nuwa village in Rolpa district and is closing in on them, Defence Secretary Padma Kumar Acharya said; the rebels agreed to negotiate a peace with the government four months ago after the army for the first time launched operations against them in Rolpa but broke the peace last week and resumed hostilities.

A damaged Coca-Cola bottling plant in the capital blown up by rebels Thursday morning will begin production soon from the remaining two assembly lines as the damaged third assembly line will take three months to repair, an industry source said. Demand can be met with the onset of winter when sales slump, he said.

Fifteen additional security posts have been created in Darjeeling bordering east Nepal to prevent the infiltration of Maoists into West Bengal state, Indian press reports said. Inspector General of Special
Subsidiary Bureau (SSB) A.Negi said the deployment will be completed by December 10.

The exact Maoist fatalties and casualties figures are not known as they retreat with bodies of dead and injured after operataiaons and bury bodies in pits, an official said.