Nepal says kills 32 rebels in gunbattles
( 2002-10-25 14:46 ) (7 )

Nepal said on Thursday troops shot dead 32 rebels in separate gunbattles across the revolt-racked nation.

The rebels, who want to overthrow the constitutional monarchy in the world's only Hindu kingdom, are yet to respond to an offer by interim Prime Minister Lokendra Bahadur Chand for talks aimed at ending the six-year-old revolt which has claimed more than 5,100 lives.

The Defense Ministry said 18 guerrillas were killed in Jumla and Bardiya districts on Wednesday. Both districts are in west Nepal and have a strong rebel presence.

State radio said six rebels fighting for a one-party communist republic died in Ramechhap in east Nepal and one was gunned down in Humla in the west on Wednesday.

Four rebels were killed in Lalitpur near Kathmandu the same day and three guerrillas died in separate clashes elsewhere, a ministry statement said.

"It (the crackdown) is part of the ongoing search operations by soldiers," one army official said.

Nepal deployed its army against the rebels in November last year after the Maoists broke a truce and walked out of peace talks.

Government reports on the fighting cannot be independently verified because the clashes occur in remote areas.

King Gyanendra appointed Chand on October 11 after dismissing former Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba, who had called for a postponement of a general election scheduled for November because of threats by the rebels to disrupt the vote.

The rebels who have stepped up attacks since the king's move hurled a bomb at a shop in Kathmandu on Wednesday wounding seven people. They have called for a three day nationwide strike for November 11-13 to protest the king's decision.

The insurgency which began in 1996 has seriously hurt the impoverished country's aid-dependent economy, crippled tourism and scared away investors in the cash-starved nation.