KATHMANDU, Sept 2: At least 16 Maoists rebels and two policemen were killed in clashes across Nepal in the past 48 hours, police said on Tuesday.

Six Maoist rebels were killed when police stopped them from robbing a bank in the early hours of Tuesday in a village in Biratnagar district, about 280 kilometres southeast of Kathmandu, police said.

About 100 armed rebels had destroyed the bank building in the village, Belbari, but could not unlock a cash safe, a police official said.Police arrived at the scene and a clash ensued.

“In the clashes, six terrorists were killed while many were injured. The remaining rebels fled the scene carrying their injured colleagues with them,” the official said.

“Six policemen, including a sub-inspector, were also injured,” he said. The sub-inspector was in a serious condition.

In an incident in Siraha, southeast of Kathmandu, Maoists killed police sub inspector Kusheshor Hatbela and head constable Manoj Bhujel in a clash in which four policemen were severely wounded.

The body of a slain Maoist was also discovered in the area later.In Hariwan, 90 kilometres southeast of the capital, security forces shot dead two Maoists who had attacked a patrolling police team.

The security forces recovered bombs, pipes and communist documents after the clash, police said.

Police said another seven Maoists were killed in clashes in the Sarlahi district.

The Maoists, who had been fighting since 1996 to end the constitutional monarchy and install a communist government, abandoned a seven-month truce and peace talks on Wednesday last week after a troubled dialogue process.

The government has said there has been an upsurge in attacks blamed on the rebels since then.

It has extended curfews, deployed armed guards for political leaders and banned public meetings in Kathmandu citing the Maoist threat.

Fourteen of Nepal’s 75 districts are now under a dawn-to-dusk curfew.

The Maoist insurgency has so far claimed more than 7,800 lives.—AFP