One security man and one Maoist were killed in a clash between a team of the unified security forces and Maoists at the Karmaiya-based checkpoint of the Royal Nepalese Army (RNA) in Sarlahi on Thursday.

A press statement issued by the Ministry of Defense (MoD) said head constable of the Armed Police Force (APF), Bishnu Rijal, was killed in the incident. APF constable Om Prasad Shah and a Maoist were also injured in the clash. Shah was taken to Kathmandu for treatment.

Security men recovered a body of an unidentified Maoist from a yard of a local’s house near the checkpoint along the Mahendra Highway.

Meanwhile, suspected Maoists on Thursday shot dead a teacher, Mangal Rana, of Sarswati Primary School in Purnika of Kanchanpur district on Thursday, the statement said.

The culprits have also looted Rana’s motorcycle.

A landmine planted near a security base camp went off in Dhanban village development committee 1 of Salyan district in western Nepal killing local Purna Chand and injuring Gausari Thapa.

Chand died while undergoing treatment at Birendra military hospital, according to reports.

Employees of Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA) on Friday announced the fourth phase of agitation against the government’s decision to unbundle the NEA into three sectors (generation, transmission and distribution) through an ordinance, which is under consideration at the council of ministers.

According to, reports, the NEA employees would stage a sit-in programme at the NEA headquarters, various NEA branches in the capital and outside for an hour beginning March 6 to 10.

The NEA Employees’ Union, the authorised trade union, however, made it clear that they would be ready for talks if the government created conducive environment for the same. The Ministry of Water Resources, in a letter to the union on February 28, invited it for talks to sort out the problem.

The ordinance also envisages to creat an Electricity Regulatory Board to monitor the generation, transmission and distribution of electricity. The ministry has also claimed that the ordinance was prepared only after holding extensive discussions with stakeholders and experts concerned.

Report quoted Kumar Ojha, president of NEA Employees’ Union, as saying that they deserved the right to dissent even if it was approved by the then elected government. “What we say is that NEA’s unbundling will not be instrumental for the development of the electricity sector in the country,” he said.

The country is facing 17-hour long load shedding in a week due to power shortage.

Country Director of the World Bank in Nepal, Kenichi Ohashi, has said that the current deep-rooted problem facing the country arise from traditionalism and feudal nature of society.

Addressing a function organized by the Management Association of Nepal (MAN) in the capital on Friday, Ohashi urged the policy makers in the country not to defer the development process, according to reports.

“There are many things that Nepal can continue in the area of development in this very difficult situation,” adding, “Faster economic growth is a necessary condition for Nepal to break out of the current conflict trap and is critical to lay foundation for durable peace and functioning democracy,” he added.

“Even in the conflict affected areas, most of the truly community based programmes have shown considerable resilience, so there is a scope for promoting such programmes amid conflict,” he added.

He further said that even in the current scenario, Nepal can act on a number of important pending reforms and deepen ongoing reforms for making public institutions more effective.

Speaking at the same programme, Chief of the MAN management development centre and former chief secretary, Dr Bimal Koirala, said at present Nepali economy was sustaining simply because of the reforms carried out in the ‘90s, adding, “Unless the political parties take over the reins of reforms, the transformation whether it is economic, political and social is impossible.”

Sujit Mundal, Chief Executive Officer of Standard Chartered Bank Ltd. Nepal was awarded the “Manager of the year award 2005” during the function.

Two policemen were killed and two others were injured during sporadic Maoist attacks in the far-western town of Dhangadhi Friday evening.

According to reports, Maoist rebels simultaneously attacked the district police office, zonal police office, district prison and ward police office at around 7 p.m.

According to police, police constable Khem Raj Paneru stationed at the District Prison and Dhirka Bahadur Mahara stationed at the Zonal Police office died in the Maoist offensive. Two more policemen were injured in the clashes.

The injured are undergoing treatment at the Seti Zonal hospital.

The rebels had mounted a heavy attack at the Kailali district prison last year resulting into the escape of 170 inmates.

Maoists have regretted the bombing of the World Food Programme (WFP) office in Damak, Jhapa, on Thursday, saying that it occurred ‘by mistake’.

Issuing a press statement, in-charge of the ‘Mechi Sub-bureau’ of the CPN (Maoist), Rajendra, said his party regretted the grenade explosion inside a godown of the WPF and added that “it took place mistakenly” while bombing several government offices in the area.

“We don’t have a policy to attack the UN organisations. We want to assure that our behaviour with this organisation [UN] will be friendly and we want to be self-critical about the explosion,” the release stated.

The rebels had carried out simultaneous blasts at the WFP office and Nepal Telecom, Land Revenue Office and the Agricultural Development Bank’s offices in Damak on Thursday morning. Though no human casualty was reported, property worth millions was destroyed in the blasts.

The UN Systems in Kathmandu and several other organisations have condemned the bombings at WFP office.

Three persons including two civilians were injured as suspected Maoists opened fire at security personnel at a busy street in Pokhara, Kaski district, Saturday afternoon.

Nepalnews correspondent Bikram Thapa said from Pokhara that police Sub-inspector Kamal Kanta Pokhrel was shot by suspected Maoist assailants at Rastra Bank Chowk at around 3:30 p.m. He was critically injured in the attack.

Two local residents, Brinda Shrestha and Raj Kumar Shrestha, were also injured as they were hit by bullet shrapnel. All three injured persons have been taken to local Gandaki Hospital for treatment.

The area is tense at the moment while security forces have been mobilised in search of the gunmen.

National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) has asked the government to publicise the status of over 700 people said to have been disappeared after they were allegedly taken into custody by the security forces.

The top human rights watchdog of the country, in a letter sent to the Office of the Prime Minister on Friday, said the government mist make public the condition of disappeared citizens immediately.

NHRC’s latest call came as the families of ‘disappeared people’ continue to organise sit-in at the premises of the NHRC at Pulchowk since Thursday. They have asked the NHRC to exert pressure on the government to make the condition of disappeared people public.

The peaceful agitators said police mishandled children and women participating in the sit-in Friday afternoon.

In a statement issued Friday, the NHRC said as per discussions with the Association of families of people allegedly disappeared by the State (AFDS) the Commission would constitute a five member task force soon comprising two representatives from the Association.

Talking to Nepalnews on Saturday, journalist and a member of the Association Janmadev Jaisi said they had not entered into any such agreement with the NHRC. “This is totally false and exposes lack of sensitivity on the part of the Commission towards the issue,” he said.

The Association has condemned the NHRC statement and said it would continue its sit-in protests indefinitely.

The Association submitted a memorandum to vice-chairman of the council of ministers Kirtinidhi Bista on Thursday demanding that the government publicize the status of nearly 1,300 persons said to have been ‘disappeared’ at the hands of the state.

Members of the Association are also collecting signatures, which they said would be submitted at the upcoming session of the UN Human Rights Commission in Geneva later this month.

Over three thousand lawyers from across the country have called upon His Majesty King Gyanendra to dissolve the council of ministers terming it as “unconstitutional” in the wake of the recent Supreme Court verdict.

HM the King chairs the council of ministers himself.

While ordering to dissolve the controversial Royal Commission for Corruption Control (RCCC) last month, the apex court had held that the state power and sovereignty of Nepal lies with the Nepali people. “In this context, the NBA is concerned at the continuation of the council of ministers (led by the King) and demands its immediate dissolution,” said a resolution adopted by the tenth All Nepal Lawyers’ Conference on Saturday.

The “Golden Jubilee Declaration” adopted by the conference also held that the political way out to the country would be possible by holding elections to the constituent assembly to draft a new constitution. “For this, the dissolved parliament should be reinstated or an all-party government be formed on the basis of political consensus among all sides,” the declaration said.

The conference also condemned what it called the government’s ‘autocratic’ act of imposing ban on peaceful assembly, mass meetings etc. and detaining political leaders, workers, human rights and civil society activists.

The conference denounced the government’s decision to allow the Royal Nepalese Army to operate FM radio stations, asked the government to take initiative for the dignified and early repatriation of the Bhutanese refugees and publicise the whereabouts of the people reported as disappeared from the government custody.

The Conference called upon both the government and (CPN) Maoist to declare ceasefire without further delay and work towards restoring sustainable peace and end violence, murder and an environment of terror through dialogue and negotiations.

The Conference also called the government to stop the practice of amending existing laws and issuing ordinances against the spirit of the constitution. The Conference dismissed the municipal polls held last month saying that it did not have any legal basis.

The conference adopted a resolution put forward by the Kathmandu Bar Association demanding that the US government close down its detention center at the Guantanamo Bay. The conference also demanded that quota free and duty free access be awarded to products manufactured in the Least Developed Countries including Nepal.

During the four-day conference, delegates said they will continue to fight to uphold country’s constitution and rule of law. They recalled that the fourth All Nepal National Lawyers’ Conference had called for the end of the then partyless Panchayat polity and that the lawyers had played an important role in the restoration of multiparty democracy in 1990.

African United Club (AUC) clinched the 4th Aaha Gold Cup Football Tournament beating Mahendra Police Club (MPC) 2-0 in the finals in Pokhara today.

Jawalakhel Youth Club player Abdul Ghani was the hero scoring two goals for the African team though they were under pressure throughout the match. MPC pressed from the start but AUC’s stubborn defense line denied all chances and put MPC men at bay. MPC, who was playing without seven starters, dominated the first half but couldn’t open the account.

After the re-start, MPC again attacked relentlessly but they were bereft of any goals. Finally, they were downed by Deepak Poudel’s blunder, which was well utilized by speedster Abdul Gani, scoring a superb goal in the 80th minute. Gani doubled the tally, ensuring the victory, in the 85th minute with his excellent powerful shot that left MPC reserve goalie Mukunda Thapa completely stranded.

“It was brilliant game for us and the boys labored hard to pay homage to all Africans,” AUC captain Obabgbemiro Junior told reporters. “We salute our players and all Pokhreli people for their kind support and nice hospitality,” Junior added. Abdul Gani, the highest goal scorer, with four goals in three matches, clinched the trophy along with being named the Man of the Match.

“We could have won the match, but a small blunder cost us,” MPC coach Yogamber Suwal told reporters.

More than 12,000 people watched the final match. The chairman of Organizing committee and club president Bikram Thakali was pleased to see the large crowd in the finals. “It was excellent to see a large crowd in the finals,” Thakali poured his joy.

The ANFA President gave away the prizes to the winners and runners-up. Club well-wisher Nabin Gurung gave away the trophy and cash to the best player of the tournament, Ananta Thapa of MPC.

The Judicial Council (JC) has, after a long discussion and deliberation, recommended 31 persons to be appointed judges at the Appellate Courts (AC) and sent the names to the Royal Palace for approval, a newspaper report said.

The council recommended persons to fill up the vacant posts at the AC from among the persons already serving under the judicial sector. The Kantipur daily quoted a source with the Supreme Court as saying that the names, unknown to judicial sector, proposed by law and justice minister Niranjan Thapa were thrown away this time.

“Other JC members spent hours to convince the minister why many names put forward by him were not appropriate to be recommended as judges at the appellate level,” the source said, “Finally, the minister sided with other members and names were deleted from the list.”

The council this time recommended 30 district judges for promotion. Shambhu Bahadur Khadka, serving as secretary to the Royal Commission for Corruption Control has also been recommended.

The apex court source also disclosed that exercises were on to transfer working AC judges along with the naming of new judges.

Many district judges with very short period in service have also been recommended. Half a dozen district judges including Dr Ananda Mohan Bhattarai, Mira Khadka, got their names included on the basis of their competence in administering justice.

The JC held a meeting on Monday and Tuesday to select and recommend names for vacant positions of judges at AC. Minister Thapa, an ex-officio member of the council, had tried to exert pressure over other members of the body to elect and recommend names proposed by him for the posts. He produced names of 15 lawyers close to him seeking the council’s approval.