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Government forces blocking strategic points in Nepal gunned down at least 17 rebels in the mountains of Jumla in west Nepal as forces elsewhere killed five more rebels late on Saturday and Sunday.
While security forces near Kalaiya in the southern Bara district killed two rebels, three others were killed in Dhangadi in the western Kailali district.
The troops have also recovered cash and jewellery that the rebels had looted from a government-run bank in Khalanga, Colonel Deepak Gurung, spokesman of the Royal Nepal Army, said.
Another group of rebels ambushed an army vehicle carrying a patrolling team east of Bidur in Nuwakot late on Saturday. "Some unidentified Maoist rebels had planted a landmine along a road near Bhadrutaar village," Colonel Gurung told rediff.com
The landmine killed them instantly and badly damaged the jeep.
Security forces are involved in similar operations in other points in Kalikot, Rukum, Rolpa, Dolpa, Gorkha, Nuwakot, Dhading, Parbat, Baglung and other districts that are under the control of the Maoists.
In war-ravaged Khalanga, 77 bodies of rebels had been recovered till Saturday evening. At least four civilians and three inmates have been confirmed dead during the rebel strikes on Thursday night and Friday morning.
"Nearly 30 government buildings have been destroyed and banks and shops plundered," said journalist Nawaraj Shahi from Khalanga. "Even though the worst is over, people here are still traumatized."
According to him, Jumla's former district development chief Jaya Bahadur Shahi was shocked by the turn of events. "The rebels have pushed back Jumla 100 years. It will take more than a century to rebuild the infrastructure that they have damaged," the chief told his journalist namesake.
In another development, 'Prachanda', chairman of the underground Communist Party of Nepal, Maoist, has termed the incident a 'laudable show of power delegation and coordination of our heroes'.
He reiterated his party's desire to resolve the seven-year-old conflict through 'round-table conferences, interim government, and elections for the constituent assembly'. "But if the government does not reciprocate and goes ahead with the killing of Maoists, we will be forced to retaliate violently," he said.
Prachanda, along with various other top leaders of the Maoists like Babu Ram Bhattarai and Krishna Bahadur Mahara, is believed to be hiding in India. Mahara appeared in a rare television interview with CNN's New Delhi Bureau on Thursday, November 14.
Meanwhile, the newly formed Lokendra Bahadur Chand government says it is serious about peace talks, but has been unable to respond to the Maoists' invitation because of a lack of consensus among various political parties.
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