Gaur: A forest guard was injured in an exchange of fire between the forest mobile security guard and some armed wood smugglers in the jungle under the Junglesahiya range post of Rautahat district on Friday night. Forest guards also suspect that some 50 wood smugglers were injured in the incident. Forest guard Harikishun Chaudhary sustained severe injuries.

Two of the wood smugglers—Kalimullah and Sheikh Kamaruddin—were arrested while the others escaped, said forest officer Jagannath Koirala. Twenty-four tyre-run bullock carts and 10 bicycles used by the smugglers were destroyed in the exchange of fire that lasted about three hours. Some 500 cubic feet of wood worth Rs. 300,000 was also recovered from the site of the incident. RSS