Nawalparasi, March 5:

The People’s Liberation Army (PLA) divisions based in several parts of the country continued to distribute forms for the aspirants to join the Maoist army today as well.

The PLA divisions started distributing the application forms three days ago, after the Maoist army launched a fresh recruitment drive.

More than 1,000 youths have already filled the forms for different posts at Fourth Division so far, according to Ramlal Rokka, assistant commander of the Fourth Division at Jhyaltungdanda in Nawalparasi.

“The response has been slowed down due to the ongoing strikes along the East-West Highway,” he added.

The cantonments in the Fourth Division have 3,078 combatants verified by the United Nations Mission in Nepal (UNMIN). The UNMIN had disqualified 1,965 fighters from the Fourth Division during its verification process.

“We will fill the positions, which were lying vacant after the UNMIN’s verification,” Rokka added.

The PLA Fourth Division has been distributing forms from its four cantonments.

“Though we had initially announced a week’s deadline to fill the forms, we are planning to extend the time as youths have not been coming to file the applications as per our expectations due the the strikes in different parts of the country,” the Fourth Division said.

Meanwhile, the Third Division of the PLA at Shaktikhor in Chitwan distributed over 100 forms. “We have already received some forms. We expect some more youths to submit the forms soon,” said Abiral, spokesperson for the Third Division.

Though the forms were supposed to be distributed only for the combatants

discarded by the UNMIN, the forms are also being distributed to all interested youths, according to the Third Division.