December 01, 2001

KATHMANDU: Unspecified number of Maoists have been killed in continuing army helicopter gunship attacks against Maoists strongholds Saturday in the districts of Rolpa and Jajarkot 400kms northwest of the capital, a Defence Ministry announcement said.

Rumours spread like wildfire in the capital that senior rebel leaders were killed in the attacks. The exact number of insurgent fatalities were not available as ground soldiers tried to reach the base of the Maoist hideouts in the districts considered their strongholds.

The army confirmed that it is continuing search and cordon operations to destroy rebel hideouts and training centres. Unlike in the past Maoist attacks against police outposts, the soldiers are pursuing the rebels to their jungle hideouts.

Soldiers repulsed attempts by rebels to blow up the sources of Kathmandu’s drinking water supplies north of the capital at Shivapuri and Sundarijal in the east, a Defence Ministry announcement said.

A loud blast shortly after 7 AM was heard in the capital Friday possibly at Shivapuri one day after the rebels blasted the Coca-Cola bottling plant in the capital. One person resisting search and arrest was killed in Nawalparasi overnight, the Defence Ministry said.

Soldiers have recovered a large cache of explosives at the foot of Mount Everest after a search operation following a deadly attack against civilian and military targets in which initial official reports said more than 200 rebels were killed.

The army has arrested the owner of a truck and captured the vehicle used while raiding an army barrack in Dang last Friday in the first rebel attack against soldiers in an insurgency that has claimed more than 2,000 lives in nearly six years; the Maoists decamped with 99 SLRs most of which have been recovered.

Widespread reports of arrests, seizures of explosives and surrender by rebels are flowing in. Rebel confirmation of developments were not available.