100 abducted in a day in Nuwakot alone

Nuwakot, November 19:

Maoist cadres last night abducted more than 100 people, including students from Fikuti, Manakamana and Panchakanya VDCs in Nuwakot .

“Maoist cadres took away 21 persons, including my son Shambhu, promising to provide them employment in the Maoists’ People’s Liberation Army (PLA),” said Reb Kumar Neupane, a local at Fikuti VDC-5. He said the Maoists took more than 80 students and youths from Manakamana and Panchakanya VDCs.

Issuing a statement today, Nuwakot district president of Nepali Congress Jagadishwor Narsingh KC condemned the abductions and urged the Maoists to release the abductees. Most of the abductees are school students, the statement said, urging the Maoists to stop such acts.

However, Maoist battalion ‘C’ company commissar Shital denied abducting anyone.

The Maoist militia left for Chitwan today while on their way to Kamidanda, he said.

Quoting the police, our Gaighat correspondent said the Maoists last night took away 37 youths from Triyuga municipality of Udaypur to recruit them in the PLA. The Maoists told them that they would be able to secure jobs in the national army after the election to the constituent assembly.

The Maoists also took 20 students from Triyuga Multiple Campus and 17 youth from Triyuga municipality-7, Asari, said the Udaypur District Police Office (DPO). A report from Ilam said some villagers reached the district headquarters this morning to locate the whereabouts of their children whom the Maoists abducted from villages in Ilam.

Villagers in Ilam are worried after the abduction of students from different schools by the Maoists since the past four days. Guardians of Rel Bahadur Rai, Keshav Adhikari and Pratap Bahadur Rai whom the Maoists took control four days ago from Purna Memorial Secondary School at Godak VDC in Ilam, met human rights activists and journalists in the district headquarters and sought their help.

A report from Surkhet said that as Surkhet’s Dashrathpur is fixed as the main cantonment site, the Maoists have intensified recruitment drive.

The Maoists have abducted at least 400 youths in Surkhet district alone for recruitment in the PLA in the past couple of weeks, said monitoring human rights organisations.

Most of the recruits are underage, said representative of INSEC Surkhet, Durga Thapa, adding most of them were allured with the promise of financial benefits. However, deputy commander in the Maoists’ army, Pasang, said that the party has no policy to recruit in the army now.

‘Maoists won’t down arms’

BAGLUNG: Maoist-affiliated All Nepal National Independent Students’ Union-Revolutionary (ANNISU-R) general secretary Himal Sharma said on Sunday the Maoists would not lay down their arms until monarchy is abolished in Nepal. Addressing a programme organised by the ANNISU-R, Baglung, said: “The republican movement launched by the Maoists is still on. No force in the name of international monitoring can stop people’s goal of a republic.”

Saying that the Maoists’ decade-long war was for real peace in the nation, he urged the Nepali Congress and the CPN-UML to join the republican front.— HNS