Province No. 1 (NA): Timeline (Terrorist Activities) -2005

Nepal News reports that at least 12 security personnel were killed in a clash with Maoist insurgents at Malbase area on the Koshi Highway in Dhankuta district on January 1. State-owned Radio Nepal quoting the Dhankuta-based No.2 Brigade of the Royal Nepalese Army (RNA) said that eight army personnel and four policemen were killed in the five-hour battle while 10 security men were injured. The insurgents had reportedly exploded landmines targeting a security team that had gone to the area from Bhedetar to clear the obstructions on the highway. Read less...

In Sunsari district, security forces shot dead two Maoists, identified as Bodh Narayan Chaudhari and Laxmi Das, at Aurabani on January 2. In the Bara district, the troops killed a Maoist, Saddam Hussein alias ‘Bushal’, in Prasauna. Read less...

The Maoists have reportedly abducted more than 2000 school teachers and students from the various schools of Acham district for their indoctrination campaign during the last two days, December 2-3. On the same days, the Maoists also abducted over 200 students from Taplejung district for a similar campaign. Read less...

A Kantipur Online report said that at least 21 cadres of the People’s Front of Nepal (PFN) were injured when a group of armed Maoists attacked an anti-Maoist rally organized by the PFN at Bohoragaon village in Baglung district on December 3. Another report stated that the security forces’ recovered two dead bodies of the five abducted security force personnel in Dhankuta on December 1. A Himalayan Times report on December 3, quoting the Royal Nepalese Army sources, said a clash was going on between the security forces’ and Maoists in the Sampang area of Bhojpur district. Read less...

Delayed media reports stated that three security force (SF) personnel and two Maoist insurgents were killed, while four SF personnel were injured during a clash in the Sangpang Village Development Committee (VDC) area of Bhojpur district on January 3. Read less...

The Kathmandu Post has reported that security forces’ shot dead a Maoist insurgent at Madi in the Narayangadh district on January 6, while the Royal Nepalese Army (RNA) claimed to have killed an insurgent in the Juketar area of Taplejung district and one each in Tata village and Satakhani area of Surkhet district on January 5. Read less...

The Maoists attacked a security patrol team and killed two police personnel at Birtamod Bazaar in the eastern Jhapa district on January 5. At least one insurgent was killed and few others are believed to have been wounded when the troops retaliated. Two police personnel and a civilian were also injured during the attack. Read less...

The Himalayan Times has indicated that the Maoists have abducted more than 560 teachers and students from different schools in the Doti and Taplejung districts. A student of Prabhat Higher Secondary School in Doti, who managed to escape, informed that the Maoists kidnapped the students and teachers stating that they were needed for a 15-day ‘campaign’. In Taplejung, the Maoists abducted 61 students and a teacher, RB Gurung, from the Mayam secondary school at Furumbu. Read less...

The Kantipur Online has reported that Maoist insurgents shot dead one police personnel, identified as Tara Roka, at Dhangadi Bazaar in the Dhangadi district on January 7. On the same day, three insurgents were reportedly wounded during clashes between the security forces’ and Maoists at Katari in the Udayapur district. Read less...

During a meeting with the media in Biratnagar on January 16, Prime Minister, Sher Bahadur Deuba, claimed that the increase in defence budget was not meant to finish off the insurgents but to pressurise them to come to the negotiating table and added, "It is not possible, constitutionally, to revive the parliament so the government is compelled to gear up for elections." Read less...

Two Maoists were killed when a bomb they were trying to plant exploded on the Ilam-Phidim section of the Mechi Highway near Puwa Khola on January 16. Read less...

According to media reports, a heavy clash took place between Maoist insurgents and security forces at Barbote area in the eastern district of Ilam on January 19. Radio reports quoting Maoist ‘Brigade Commissar’ Sanatu Durai alias Parwana of the ‘seventh brigade’ in Mechi and Koshi Zones said that at least 20 security force personnel and six Maoists were killed in the incident and the insurgents have seized some automatic weapons from the troops. Further the sources said that at least 20 security force personnel were in the Maoist captivity. However, the government authorities are yet to comment on the incident. Read less...

During a program in Morang district on January 19, the Nepali Congress (NC) president, Girija Prasad Koirala has said, "As the Maoist problem has become a concern of the international community, it cannot be settled without foreign mediation" and added that even as the King, the political parties and the Maoists found a meeting point, the conflict would still be far from a practical settlement. Further, Koirala insisted that the Royal Palace was the main roadblock in finding a solution to the conflict and also reiterated that reinstatement of the House of Representatives was the only way to deal with the present situation. Read less...

In another incident, Maoists attacked and injured a CPN (UML) leader, Hum Bahadur Thapa, in the Tanahun district on January 22. Separately, a delayed report said that Maoists have abducted 18 persons, including five students, from a village in Sankhuwasabha district on January 20. Owing to Maoist threats, 36 VDC secretaries of the Ramechhap district have collectively resigned from their posts on January 23. Reports added that the insurgents have freed the teachers and students who had earlier been abducted from Raigaon in the Dhading district. Meanwhile, normal life in various parts of the country, including the Chitwan, Kaski, Parbat, Saptari, Siraha, Tanahun, Parbat and Udaypur districts, have been affected due to the Maoist general strike. Read less...

According to media reports, on January 21, at least 23 bodies of security force (SF) personnel were found at the encounter site near Puwakhola on the Mechi Highway in Ilam district, while 22 SF personnel are reported missing after the incident on January 19. However, the Maoist ‘Brigade Commissar’, Parwana, said no SF personnel were in their custody. Read less...

The Maoists have reportedly abducted 13 teachers and 77 students from Salukalika VDC and 12 teachers and 100 students from Gothgaun in the Ramechhap district to unidentified locations. Further, they also abducted Tamesh Kumar Ghising from Dudhpokhari in Dailekh district after he refused to dig a bunker. A group of armed Maoists also abducted Harinarayan Panjiyar, CPN-UML cadre and a former District Development Committee Chairman, from his house in Gaighat. Read less...

Another report said the RNA has launched a massive aerial patrol in the northern parts of Panchthar district from January 22, following the January 19 clash with the Maoists on Ilam-Phidim section of Mechi Highway in Ilam district. Read less...

Media reports said that the Maoists have abducted at least 250 students and teachers from a high school in Rigaon of Dhading district on January 22. Similarly, in Sankhuwasabha district, Maoists abducted 150 students including 12 teachers from a High School at Mamling VDC for their ‘training programmes’ on January 19 and released all of them on January 22. In Damak, Maoists reportedly abducted three staffs of the Ratuwamai Afforestation Project in Kerakha VDC of Jhapa district. Read less...

Nepal News has reported that Maoist insurgents killed a junior police officer, Naresh Chaurasiya, at his home in the Amarpatti Village Development Committee (VDC) area of Parsa district on January 23. On the same day in Siraha district, a Maoist cadre, identified as Gajadev Gaderi, was shot dead during a security forces’ operation at Betauna. Further, in the Panchthar district, Maoists exploded a ‘pressure cooker’ bomb at the office of the drinking water project at Phidim. The blast reportedly caused an estimated damage of Rupees 120,000. Read less...

According to a delayed report, Maoist insurgents killed two civilians, identified as Munilal Mhato and Mohan Krishna Kamat, after abducting them from Majare in the Morang district on January 27. On the same day, suspected Maoists shot at and injured two civilians in the Kailali district. Read less...

The Himalayan Times has reported that the insurgents have abducted more than 1,150 students and teachers from different schools in the Sankhuwasabha and Dhading districts on January 27. A Sankhuwasabha-based SF source said that Maoists abducted 31 teachers and 625 students from four schools of Dhupu and Matsyapokhari VDCs located 15 km north of district headquarters Khandbari. They also abducted over 500 students and teachers from the northern parts of Dhading district. Read less...

On January 28, Maoists released 700 students and 45 teachers who had been abducted from different schools in the Sankhuwasabha district on January 26. Over the last nine months, the Maoists have reportedly abducted and subsequently released some 12 thousand students across the country. Read less...

A child was killed while two other children were injured when a Maoist insurgent hurled a bomb at a family gathering in the Sungare area of Khotang district on January 29. On the same day, the insurgents shot dead an ex-Maoist cadre, Vikram Yonjan, at Doramba in the Ramechhap district. In Nuwakot district, the insurgents bombed and destroyed the guesthouse of Japan Agricultural In-service Training Institute, a Japanese research institution in Kakani on January 29. Read less...

According to Kathmandu Post, on January 29, Maoists abducted a pregnant woman and an elderly man in the Dailekh district and 36 people in Bara district, accusing them of participating in an anti-Maoist rally. Meanwhile, security forces arrested two armed members of an Indian Maoist organization in the Ithari district of Nepal on January 29. Read less...

The Maoist-affiliated, All Nepal National Independent Students Union-Revolutionary (ANNISU-R), after its central committee meeting in Dang district has decided to force all private higher secondary schools around the country to close down. Kantipur Online has reported that people of Bhojpur district are facing severe shortage of foodstuff and other essential items following a Maoist-imposed blockade in the district since the last two months. Read less...

The Maoists have reportedly abducted at least 150 students from different schools in the Panchthar district in eastern Nepal to make them participate in a mass meeting of the insurgents. Nepal News, quoting an Informal Sector Service Centre report, said that 23,000 students and teachers have been abducted and subsequently released after participating in Maoist programmes over the last nine years since the Maoist insurgency started. Read less...

Normal life in the Sindhuli and Udaypur districts was affected due to the Maoist-supported vehicular strike for over a week. In the eastern region and Kaski district, thousands of students have been affected by the educational strike declared by the insurgents from January 18 and 23 respectively. Read less...

On January 31, the Maoists abducted and later shot dead a young woman, Bimala Pathak, after accusing her of spying against their organization at Surunga in the Jhapa district. Read less...