Nepali Forces Surround Leftist Rebels

Nepali security forces have tracked down 70 policemen kidnapped by leftist rebels and are trying to rescue them without bloodshed, Home Secretary Srikanta Regmi said on Sunday.

Nepal called in the army to rescue the policemen and recover arms and ammunition seized by the rebels during a raid on a police post in Rolpa district in west Nepal last week.

"They have been spotted. We are trying to achieve our mission without any casualties or bloodshed," Regmi said.

Officials said the military was being "highly restrained" in the operation and there were no casualties.

Regmi said the rebels had holed up with the kidnapped policemen at Holery village and were using them as a "human shield". The rescuers were only about 700 metres from the captives and had surrounded the village, he said.

The government called the army into action against the rebels for the first time on Friday.

Until now poorly equipped and ill-trained police had been taking on the guerrillas who often launch hit-and-run attacks on police posts at night.

Regmi rejected a rebel offer late on Friday to free 80 captives in exchange for the release of some jailed leftists.

The Nepali daily Himalaya Times said the rebels were asking for safe passage but the military was insisting that the guerrillas must surrender with their arms.

Officials would not comment on a newspaper report that said the army had been put on "red-alert" across the country because of the rebel violence.

The leftist rebel chief Prachanda, who made the swap offer, did not say if the 80 included the abducted policemen.

"The government is not in a position to exchange their men with police personnel under any condition," Regmi said.

The Nepali daily Kantipur said the rebels had freed 22 other policemen who were captured in April as a "goodwill gesture" but officials said no released police had made contact with the government yet.

Human rights activists said they planned to visit the area of the standoff to seek the peaceful release of the policemen.

The leftist rebels have stepped up their violent campaign to set up a communist republic in the world's only Hindu kingdom since last month's massacre of almost the entire royal family.

About 1,750 people have been killed in the leftist conflict since it started in February 1996.






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