At least 65 police and soldiers were killed when Maoist rebels in Nepal launched a massive attack on security posts a day after executing nearly 50 security personnel in a different part of the country, state-run radio reported on Monday.
Sources told AFP as many as 4 000 rebels were involved in the raids overnight at Sandhikharka in Arghakanchi district, 215 kilometres southwest of Kathmandu.
The radio said the rebels attacked a police post, an army camp and government offices in the town.
The fighting, which continued for seven hours, left 31 policemen, 17 armed police officers and 17 soldiers dead, it added. Minister of State for Home Devendra Raj Kandel confirmed that 56 security force personnel had died but said the toll could rise. He added that three policemen had been kidnapped by the rebels as they left.
Officials said they feared the deputy district chief may have been killed in the attack but this was not confirmed.
The rebels also shot at two army helicopters, damaging them
slightly, the radio said.
The huge raids came as the government of Nepal was considering renewing a state of emergency which was first imposed in November last year to combat the rebels but which lapsed on August 28.
Just 24 hours earlier 49 policemen were lined up and executed with shots to the head when 1 000 Maoist rebels attacked a police post at Bhimad in the eastern Sindhuli district, 85 kilometres east of Kathmandu, officials said. Ten more were injured.
Kandel said as many as 70 rebels may have been killed in those clashes.
Emergency rule was introduced after the guerrillas broke a
four-month ceasefire with the government and pulled out of peace talks.
At the same time the Royal Nepal Army was ordered into action against the rebels for the first time.
The emergency gave local authorities and security forces wide powers to detain and interrogate suspected rebels and impose curfews.
But opposition and rights groups said it curtailed human rights and was not effective in the fight against the guerrillas, who have been fighting since 1996 for a communist republic. The insurgency has so far claimed more than 4 400 lives.
It was renewed twice but expired late last month and Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba decided not to extend it again because he has called an election for November 13.
But since it expired there have been almost daily blasts in the Nepalese capital, which have injured several people. A soldier was killed trying to defuse one of the bombs. On Monday a bomb planted in the heart of Kathmandu was defused by the army. The rebels have not claimed responsibility for the attacks, but police suspect they are involved.
Deuba last week said the government was considering imposing the emergency again. – Sapa-AFP