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The government's security forces killed at least three Maoist rebels in overnight fighting in Dhangadi in western Nepal on Friday night and Saturday morning.
Meanwhile, search operations continued in and around Jumla, a day after hundreds of heavily armed rebels swarmed the town of Khalanga and killed more than 50 security men while losing dozens of their own personnel.
By early Saturday, the defence ministry confirmed the death of 60 security personnel and 55 Maoists in the encounters in Jumla and Gorkha districts. The dead included two deputy superintendents of police and the chief district officer of Jumla, Damodar Pant. The district judge of Jumla and several others are still missing.
Security forces are combing Dhangadi in Kailali district for Maoists rebels after the latter gunned down a former parliamentarian, Chakra Prasad Chaudhari, on Thursday, November 14.
"Our operations will continue in Dhangadi," said Royal Nepal Army Colonel Deepak Gurung. He also said additional troops have been deployed in Jumla to carry out 'block and search' and 'cordon and search' operations. "Our major has not returned with his troops yet, we believe he is pursing the rebels through their hideouts and shelters in the mountains," he said.
RNA helicopters have flown several contingents of joint security forces to pursue the fleeing rebels in the nearby districts of Dolpa, Mugu, and Rolpa. In another development, the rebels have accepted responsibility for the recent killing of two security guards working for the United States embassy in Kathmandu.
The killings of Deepak Pokharel last week and Ramesh Manandhar a few months ago took place because of solid evidence of the two spying against the Maoists, said a statement issued late Friday by Comrade Bijay, the Kathmandu Valley bureau chief of the underground Communist Party of Nepal, Maoist.
The party, however, has denied its involvement in the November 13 bomb-throwing incident that took place at the residence of Keshar Jung Rayamajhi, chairman of the Raj Parishad standing committee. On Wednesday morning, security guards posted at the Kathmandu residence of Rayamajhi shot dead one person soon after he hurled an explosive within the premises.
They party also denied government claims that two Maoist supporters were killed on the outskirts of the capital in the run-up to the three-day nationwide strike that ended November 13.
"Although our policy is to not attack our critics and political rivals, those acting against 'people's war' will not be spared," Comrade Bijay warned. The Maoists have also warned a popular film artiste, Santosh Panta, who is an honorary sergeant in the army's Directorate of Military Intelligence, to refrain from working to destabilize the 'people's war'. They have asked Panta to refrain from producing any 'anti-people's war propaganda' and resign from the DMI within seven days.
Panta, who is famous for his popular teleserials on topical issues, has denied the charges levelled by the Maoists. "I am an artiste and am not involved in any such action. If they think my death facilitates peace, then I am ready for the sacrifice," he said.
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