Posted on 04/14/2002 7:10:22 AM PDT by flamefront
Marking the worst battle in a six-year-old guerrilla war, Nepalese authorities on Saturday raised the death toll from a night of fighting to 160 — many of them police beheaded by Maoist rebels.
The dramatic jump in the death — the government had reported 54 deaths Friday — was revealed by local officials to journalists who traveled overnight by road to the two remote towns in western Nepal that saw most of the fighting on Thursday night and early Friday.
Police Inspector Padam Vohra told The Associated Press that 60 policemen were killed while defending the house of Interior Security Minister Khum Bahadur Khadka from a rebel attack. Another 27 policemen who surrendered were beheaded, and two were burned alive, he said. About 30 police survived.
Vohra said 11 policemen were killed in an attack on a police station in the nearby town of Lamahi. The two attacks set off overnight gunbattles that left hundreds of rebels dead, he said.
An AP reporter saw at least 60 bodies of guerrillas half buried along a dry riverbed a few miles from the minister's house. The bodies had apparently been left by the retreating guerrillas.
Some of the bodies were headless and others were being eaten by dogs. Many corpses were half-buried with only their legs sticking above the shallow graves.
Thwran Thaket, a senior police constable, said he believed the rebels took many more fallen comrades in two trucks along with 95 rifles and three machine guns looted from the dead policemen.
The minister's house was gutted and blackened by fire. Two burned sedans were parked outside the 10-foot-high boundary wall.
On the ground were blotches of blood, shreds of police uniforms, destroyed sofas and cupboards, and twisted, blackened bicycles. Shards of broken glass were scattered across the town.
The 120 paramilitary police guarding the house were surrounded by thousands of rebels, witnesses said.
"They are so ferocious that they killed officers ... even after they surrendered," Vohra said. "They were stripped naked, then paraded, and finally beheaded with khukris, he said, referring to the traditional Nepali knives.
The towns where the attacks occurred are in Dang district, about 190 miles west of the capital, Katmandu.
It was the worst single night of violence since the Maoist insurgency erupted in 1996 in the poor Himalayan country, which is ruled by an elected government under a constitutional monarchy.
In the worst previous fighting, guerrillas killed 137 soldiers, police and civilians on Feb. 17 in attacks in Mangalsen town in the northwestern Achham district.
"The situation is so bad that I don't know how long I will live," said the Dang district's chief administrator, M.P. Yadav.
"There is nobody to fight them. There is no equipment to fight them. We are helpless, hapless," he told the AP.
Nepal has been under a state of emergency since Nov. 26, when the rebels withdrew from peace talks. The army has been mobilized to help the poorly equipped police fight the guerrillas, but rebel attacks have continued unabated.
Also Saturday, a bomb exploded near a school in the northwestern town of Laltin Bazaar, killing three people and injuring four others, police said.
One postal worker, one town resident and a man who had just dropped off his wife at the school were killed.
I have not been watching this Nepal terror closely and will welcome your comments, but it appears to me people in the U.S. generally do not want to acknowledge a global terror war is happening. These things are no coincidence. These [eople know they can run about unscathed in the present circumstances.
See this barely visited thread also:
India, Nepal uncover [Pakistan's] ISI destabilisation plot.
1768 - Gurkha ruler Prithvi Narayan Shah conquers Kathmandu and lays foundations for unified kingdom.
1792 - Nepalese expansion halted by defeat at hands of Chinese in Tibet.
1816 - Nepal becomes quasi-British protectorate after Anglo-Nepali war.
1846 - Nepal falls under sway of hereditary chief ministers known as Ranas, who dominate the monarchy and cut off country from outside world.
1923 - Britain formally recognises Nepal's independence - though foreign relations remain under British control.
Absolute monarchy
1950 - Anti-Rana forces based in India form alliance with monarch.
1951 - Sovereignty of crown restored and anti-Rana rebels in Nepalese Congress Party form government.
1959 - Multi-party constitution adopted.
1960 - King Mahendra seizes control and suspends parliament and party politics after Nepali Congress Party (NCP) wins elections.
1962 - New constitution provides for non-party system of councils known as "panchayat" under which king exercises sole power.
1972 - King Mahendra dies, succeeded by Birendra.
Multi-party politics
1980 - Constitutional referendum follows agitation for reform. Small majority favours keeping existing panchayat system. King agrees to allow direct elections to national assembly - but on a non-party basis.
1985 - NCP begins civil disobedience campaign for restoration of multi-party system.
1986 - New elections boycotted by NCP.
1989 - Trade and transit dispute with India leads to border blockade by Delhi resulting in worsening economic situation.
1990 - Pro-democracy agitation co-ordinated by NCP and leftist groups. Street protests suppressed by security forces resulting in deaths and mass arrests. King Birendra eventually bows to pressure and agrees to new democratic constitution.
1991 - Nepali Congress Party wins first democratic elections. Girija Prasad Koirala becomes prime minister.
Political instability
1994 - Koirala's government defeated in no-confidence motion. New elections lead to formation of Communist government.
1995 - Communist government dissolved. Radical leftist group, the Nepal Communist Party (Maoist) begins insurrection in rural areas aimed at abolishing monarch and establishing people's republic.
1997 - Continuing political instability as Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba is defeated and replaced by Lokendra Bahadur Chand. Chand is then forced to resign because of party splits and is replaced by Surya Bahadur Thapa.
1998 - Thapa stands down because of party splits. GP Koirala returns as prime minister heading a coalition government.
1999 - Fresh elections give majority to Nepali Congress Party. Krishna Prasad Bhattarai becomes prime minister.
2000 - Prime Minister Bhattarai steps down after revolt in Nepali Congress Party. GP Koirala returns as prime minister, heading the ninth government in 10 years.
2001 April - Supreme Court appoints its first female judge; general strike called by Maoist rebels brings life in many parts of the country to a virtual standstill; police arrest more than 100 anti-government demonstrators, including a number of opposition leaders, in the capital, Kathmandu.
2001 1 June - King Birendra, Queen Aishwarya and other close relatives killed in shooting spree by drunken Crown Prince Dipendra, who then shoots himself.
2001 4 June - Prince Gyanendra crowned King of Nepal after the late King Birendra's son, Dipendra - who had been declared king on 2 June - died of injuries sustained during the palace shooting.
2001 July - Maoist rebels step up campaign of violence. Sher Bahadur Deuba becomes prime minister, heading the 11th government in 11 years, after Girija Prasad Koirala quits over the violence.
2001 July - Deuba announces peace with rebels, truce begins.
2001 November - Maoists say peace talks have failed, truce is no longer justified. Launch coordinated attacks on army and police posts, ending truce.
2001 November - State of emergency declared after more than 100 people are killed in 4 days of violence. King Gyanendra orders army to crush the Maoist rebels, which the government labels as terrorists. Rebel attacks continue.
2002 January - US Secretary of State Colin Powell visits to offer support for the battle against the Maoist insurgency.
2002 February - Multilateral aid agencies and donor countries, meeting in the Nepalese capital, Kathmandu, pledge $2.5bn to Nepal to help bail out its cash-strapped economy.
2002 February - Maoists kill 127 in weekend raids on several government installations.
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