Dhangadhi, November 18:

Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala’s appeal notwithstanding, the Maoists are engaged in their drive of conscripting students for the People’s Liberation Army (PLA).

They have taken dozens of students of Janapriya Higher Secondary School at Masuriya of Kailali to the Maoist 7th Division headquarters at Taalband for drafting them in the PLA.

Dozens of students of grades 8, 9 and 10 as well as the higher secondary level of the school including a tenth-grader Ganesh Bhandari voluntarily went to join the Maoist army, eyewitnesses said.

A number of students, including a ninth-grader of Janapriya School, Liladhar Giri, eighth-grader Arjun Acharya and Khagendra Deuba, a fourth-grader of Singhasan Primary School at Masuriya have gone to the Maoist camp at Taalband. The Maoists also took over 15 Dalit youths from Parasan VDC of Kanchanpur on Thursday and Friday to recruit them in the PLA, a local, Dhan Bahadur BK, said.

Locals said they were not allowed to meet their children once the Maoists took them. “I asked Maoists to let me meet my daughter, but they turned down my request,” Anita’s father Jog Bahadur Sunar said. The Maoists took a student of sixth grade of Trinagar Higher Secondary School of Dhangadhi Janaki BK, a teacher, said.

Locals of Parasan said Maoists are putting up in their homes to lure youths to join the party. However, the Maoists’ district leadership said it was merely distributing party membership to the youths.