41 Maoist killed, claims Army
IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency
New Delhi, Jan 7, IRNA -- With a week to go before the Nepal government`s ultimatum to the Maoist insurgents expires, the army claimed it had inflicted severe losses on the underground guerrillas, recovering the bodies of 41 rebels with more suspected to have been killed. The incident reportedly took place in the remote Kailali district in farwest Nepal, a troubled area in recent times with several clashes taking place between security forces and the communist insurgents. According the media report, an army statement Wednesday evening said the bodies of 30 Maoists were killed in a double-pronged attack that deployed helicopters. This time security forces took the initiative, acting on a tip-off that hundreds of rebels had gathered in a forest near Bankhet village in Musariya to launch a secret attack on the Sukkhad base camp of the army. The fight reportedly went on for over five hours, ending early Thursday morning. The state media, which has launched a propaganda war ever since Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba gave the Maoists till 13 January to resume peace talks, failing which the government would start preparations to hold general elections, has been reporting the death of nearly 150 rebels in the attack with no loss suffered by the security forces. However, in the nine years of the insurgency, the state media as well as army have often been caught giving inflated figures about the losses suffered by the rebels. Later, they were found to be substantially less by independent probes conducted by human right activists. However, the army Thursday said it had recovered another 11 dead bodies, bringing the confirmed toll to 41. 2160/1423
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