Military

DATE=1/27/03

TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT (L-ONLY)

TITLE=NEPAL KILLINGS

NUMBER=2-298850

BYLINE=ANJANA PASRICHA

DATELINE=NEW DELHI

CONTENT=

VOICED AT:

INTRO: Police in Nepal have arrested one man in connection with the

killing of the country's Armed Police Force chief. As Anjana Pasricha reports, authorities believe that Maoist rebels are responsible for the attack.

TEXT: Officials say the suspect, Krishna Hari Sainju, was arrested near

the area where police chief Krishna Mohan Shrestha was gunned down in

the capital Kathmandu on Sunday. Mr. Shrestha was killed along with his

wife and a bodyguard.

Officials believe the detained man is a local Maoist commander. He was

found hiding in a house, with gunshot wounds in his legs. He is being

treated in a hospital.

He is allegedly one of at least three persons who led the attack. Media

reports said that the killers were masked and shot their victims a

number of times before fleeing.

Mr. Shrestha is the highest-ranking police official killed since the

Maoist insurgency erupted in 1996. He had received repeated death

threats from the rebels. The Maoists have made no comments on the

killings.

Mr. Shrestha was cremated in Kathmandu on Monday. Senior police

officials and thousands of spectators attended the funeral.

The police chief's death has shocked residents in Kathmandu. Security

has been stepped up in the city and around senior police officers.

The Maoist strongholds are in rural Nepal and their attacks have mostly

targeted police stations and infrastructure in remote areas.

The rebels are fighting to abolish the country's constitutional monarchy

and establish a communist state.

Political analysts say the latest attack will increase pressure on

Nepal's interim administration, which was appointed by King Gyanendra

three months ago after he fired the country's elected prime minister.

The new government had promised to quell the rebellion -- but violence

continues unabated. More than seven thousand people have been killed in

insurgency-related incidents in the past seven years. (signed)

NEB/HK/AP/MH/FC