Breaching the ceasefire, a group of Maoists abducted five personnel of the Armed Police Forces (APF) from Bhumahi of Nawalparasi district on Tuesday.
The Maoists abducted the policemen deployed in the area with weapons ahead of the visit of APF Additional Inspector General (AIG) Raviraj Thapa, who was arriving there to attend a police convocation ceremony at APF’s training school at Bardaghat.
The abductees include Sub-Inspector Krishna Bahadur Kunwar, head constable Krishna Rijal, constables Nawaraj Shrestha, Dharma Raj Jaisi and Bharat Thapa.
According to eyewitnesses, the Maoists took them towards northern direction in a vehicle.
However, reports quoted Maoists’ district government chief Chinak Kurmi as saying that the locals handed over the policemen to them after seizing them due to theor suspicious activities.
On Tuesday night, the rebels tried to handover the policemen to human rights activists but they were unsuccessful as the policemen refused to go without their weapons.
Claiming that they did not seize their weapons, Maoist leader Kurmi said that they could have taken by locals and also assured to return the weapons if they were found.
Meanwhile, a statement of Directorate of Public Relations of Royal Nepalese Army said that Maoists forcibly took away Dwarika Chaudhari, chairman of a local community forest users’ group from Bauari in Rangapur village development committee (VDC) of Rautahat district on Monday.
The rebels also abducted Devilal Mahato of Prempur of the district.