The CPN (Maoist) has refuted allegations leveled by the Royal Nepalese Army that its cadres were responsible for summarily executing security personnel and mutilating body parts of some of them.

In a statement issued on Monday, spokesman of the Maoists’ western command, Sudarshan, refuted RNA allegations saying that if they were to summarily execute RNA personnel, why should they treat sixty soldiers—currently under their control—as per international humanitarian law.

Earlier, a video shot by the RNA and shown to human rights activists and select media showed bodies of summarily executed soldiers. Some bodies of the soldiers were also mutilated. While performing last rites of one of the soldiers (killed at Kalikot clashes) at Pashupati Aryaghat this week, a socket bomb hidden inside his body had exploded.

Meanwhile, National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) has said a team comprising NHRC members Sudip Pathak, Gokul Pokhrel, vice chairman of Nepal Bar Association Sher Bahadur KC and former president of the Federation of Nepalese Journalists (FNJ) Tara Nath Dahal, among others, is leaving Kathmandu Tuesday to Pili, Kalikot via Nepalgunj to investigate about the clashes.

At least 70 people had lost their lives during the overnight clashes at the temporary security base at Pili last Sunday. RNA said it lost 43 soldiers during the clashes while the Maoist said they lost 26 of their comrades. But, based on soldiers’ account, RNA claimed that as many as 300 insurgents may have been killed in the fierce clashes.