AFP. 31 January 2002. Nepal Maoists lay bomb booby trap for police, kill three.
KATHMANDU -- Two police officers and a Maoist rebel were killed late Thursday when their vehicle hit a landmine, planted by the guerrillas in western Nepal, a home ministry official said. Another six policemen were seriously injured in the accident, he said. The dead were identified as Police Inspector Govinda Paudel and Sub Inspector Dil Bahadur Gharti. The names of the six injured officers were not revealed. The incident took place on the busy Pokhara-Kathmandu highway, to the west, some 120 kilometre (70 miles) west of Kathmandu, he said. The policemen were escorting two senior deputy inspector generals, Kumar Koirala and Basu Wali of the Armed Police Force, back from an inspection tour of Baglung, 260 kilometres (162 miles) west of Kathmandu. "The Maoists were believed to have set the booby trap to assassin the two senior police officials but they miraculously escaped death when the vehicle in front of them passed over it first," the official said. Meanwhile, a Maoist rebel was killed Thursday in an encounter with the army in the far western district of Rolpa, a defence ministry press release said. It said the Maoist was identified as Shankher Darlami alias Pradeep, a member of the Maoist' Peoples District Committee. Eighteen other suspected Maoists have been arrested across the country as the government steps up its crackdown on the rebels. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Barry Stoller http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ProletarianNews
