December 10, 2001

KATHMANDU: Maoists continued to suffer reverses in continuing attacks against the army Sunday as soldiers guarding a repeater station of the Nepal Telephone Communications repulsed an attack in Rolpa, the Defence Ministry said.

The extent of the fatalities will be known only after cloudy weather improves over the region in far west Nepal, the base of insurgent activities, as officials confirmed at least 60 Maoist deaths.

Four soldiers guarding the repeater station died and eight others were injured in a seven hour shoot-out which was the third major rebel attack against the army, the Defence Ministry said.

Maoists fled to a nearby jungle with their dead and injured making it difficult for officials to estimate the number of casualties. A civilian helicopter carrying reinforcement soldiers was damaged in rebel firing, a source said.

Rebels attacked an army barrack in Ghorai, Dang, for the first time in a six year insurgency killing some soldiers and fled with looted SLRs, LMGs and other sophisticated weapons not in the rebel armoury until November 23; at least 200 Maoists are known to have died in a second attack on an army barrack in Salleri a few days later.

The army then recovered some of the captured weapons from Dang. The attack on the soldiers prompted the government to declare Maoists terrorists, enforce a national emergency and launch search and mopping operations to recover the arms.

The operation is continuing as many rebels surrender to local authorities or are being arrested. The army foiled another rebel attempt to destroy another repeater station in Salyan in a Maoist strategy to disrupt communications, the Defence Ministry said.

Two rebels were killed and 25 others were arrested by soldiers in Nuwakot Saturday, the Defence Ministry. Police and military are now co-ordinating operations against rebel bases unlike in the past improving police morale particularly, an analyst said.

At least 18 Maoists have been killed in encounters with security forces in Kailali and Morang, officials said. Soldiers have recovered a  truck-load of arms, ammunition, explosives and communist literature from a  rebel training camp in Baglung, the Defence Ministry said.

Meanwhile, the Defence Ministry Sunday said the killings of an ex-soldier and the father of a serving soldier by Maoists in Nuwakot a “dastardly act giving physical and mental torture” to soldiers and
their family.