Rebels Abduct Students From Nepal Village
"Features"06/27/2005
KATMANDU, Nepal (AP) - Authorities sounded an alarm Monday over 90 high school students seized by communist rebels in a remote Nepali village and still missing five days later - which was unusual because the rebels typically hold such abductees only for two or three days to lecture them.
Officials said the rebels have increasingly been abducting large groups of students in remote villages to teach them about their nine-year revolution, aimed at replacing the government with a communist regime.
The latest abduction was of about 90 ninth- and tenth-grade students from Nepal Rastriya High School last Wednesday in Paudiamrai village, about 300 kilometers (190 miles) west of Katmandu, the military said. The village, in a remote and mountainous part of Gumli district, is mostly controlled by the insurgents.
“These students have been held longer than usual, but we are still hopeful that all of them would be freed - like before - in a few days,” said Durga Pokhrel, the chief administrative officer of the district.
“Because the village is in a remote mountainous area where there are no communication and road links, information is still very sketchy,” he said.
The district’s police chief, Bikram Gurung, said police were concerned because they had no information about the abducted children. He said police did not send any rescue mission to the area, considered a dangerous zone. There are no army or police bases nearby.
There have been increasing reports of such abuctions in the region, Pokhrel said. The students are typically taken from their schools and kept by the rebels for two or three days to be indoctrinated in communist ideology before being released and sent back to their villages, he said.
About 250 students were taken from a nearby village on June 15 and sent back three days later.
The guerrillas have stepped up violence since King Gyanendra took absolute power in February promising to quell the insurgency.
The rebels, who claim to be inspired by Chinese revolutionary Mao Zedong, have been fighting since 1996 to abolish Nepal’s constitutional monarchy and set up a communist state. The insurgency has left more than 11,500 people dead.