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Nepal considers state of emergency
KATHMANDU, Nepal (CNN) -- Nepal's cabinet is expected to meet on Monday to consider declaring a state of emergency following a violent new offensive by Maoist rebels. More than 100 people are believed dead in a spate of violence over the weekend, prompting government officials to consider a state of emergency to allow army forces to be deployed. Nepal's Kantipur newspaper reported that a cabinet source told the daily an ordinance to call a state of emergency and brand the Maoists terrorists was almost finalized. The source said that a joint operation against the rebels involving the Royal Nepal Army, police and Armed Police Force was imminent, Kantipur reported. A minister, who wished to remain unidentified, told Reuters news agency that a state of emergency could be imposed throughout the Himalayan kingdom or could be limited to areas involved in the revolt.
Police forces are the only security personnel that have been used in the operation against the Maoist uprising so far, which has killed more than 1,800 since it began in 1996. Rebels launched attacks in more than a dozen of Nepal's 75 districts, bringing to an end a four month cease-fire. In the latest development, around 50 people, mostly Maoists, were killed when rebels clashed with security forces overnight Sunday in Solukhumbhu district in eastern Nepal. That incident brought the death toll in the weekend violence to over 100, with policemen, soldiers, civilians and rebels among the casualties. Earlier, five people were killed and several others injured when a truck carrying police hit a landmine and was then intercepted by rebels in a village in Surkhet district, 500 km (312) miles west of the capital, Kathmandu. The Maoist rebels are fighting for the installation of a one-party communist republic and have stepped up their campaign following the royal massacre in June. They agreed to a truce in July after Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba came to power and pledged to work to end the revolt. But the rebels withdrew from talks last week after the government rejected their call for a new constitution. |
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