Kathmandu, Mar. 10: Home Minister Purna Bahadur Khadka has said His Majesty’s Government is making efforts to resolve problems through talks peacefully.

Mr Khadka informed the National Assembly meeting today about the country’s present law and order situation and the loss of life and property caused by violence of terrorists, adding that violence and murder further complicates the problems rather than solving them.

Stating that all those who have faith in democracy also believe in resolution of problems through talks and discussions, the Home Minister noted that His Majesty’s Government has been making appeals for giving up violence, murder and terrorist activity and engage in the task of ensuring national interests by arriving at certain conclusions.

After the start of the ongoing 16th parliamentary session, 243 people including 30 local people, 53 police personnel and 160 terrorists have been killed in clashes, said the Home Minister, adding a total of 1213 persons including 146 police personnel have been killed and property worth Rs 110 million has been damaged since Falgun 1, 2052 B.S.

Stating that two terrorists were killed yesterday in a confrontation between the patrolling police and terrorists at Bhati and Sukahiya vdcs in Kalikot district, Mr Khadka said the police personnel recovered two hand grenades and two muskets from the site of incident.

A total of 5,374 persons have been arrested in course of taking action against those who are involved in terrorist activity and 3,778 of them have been released after investigation, he added.

Similarly, he also informed the House that 1,432 muskets, 40 12-bore guns, 117 country-made pistols, 12 three knot three rifles, seven revolvers, 25 grenades, 453 hand bombs, 95 pipe bombs, 187 socket bombs, 22 pressure cooker bombs, 403 kgs of gelatin, etc have been recovered.

Noting that on the one hand the police organisation has got to be mobilised to discourage such terrorist activities, while it has to develop itself as community police in order to give the people a feeling of security by controlling social crimes, he observed that in view of such situation, a separate unit of armed police is deemed relevant and a task force has already been set up to submit a report along with suggestions about the form and duties of such body.