KATHMANDU, May 15: Nepalese security forces rescued 600 students on Sunday who had been abducted by Maoist rebels from village schools in remote mountainous areas in the west of the country, the army said. “The security forces managed to rescue on Sunday 600 students abducted from Niskot area of Myagdi district,” an army statement said. Earlier on Sunday, the army said that in a separate series of abductions, some 650 students had been taken from schools in western Nepal in the last week or “several days”.

The latest abductions included at least 450 students from villages in the Tanahun, Palpa, and Baglung districts, and another 200 from a school in the western district of Salyan. The army said it had little information on where the students were being held, but termed the abductions “inhuman and a violation of human rights.”

Rebels have been known to round up students to indoctrinate them with Maoist ideology, but normally return most of them unharmed. The practice has drawn criticism from Nepalese and international rights groups who have appealed to the guerrillas to protect students from the violence.

Meanwhile, four international aid agencies suspended their operations in western Nepal earlier Sunday after their aid workers were beaten by rebels. The World Food Programme, Britain’s Department for International Development, the German Technical Cooperation, and the Dutch Aid Agency SNV, all ended their operations after investigating alleged beatings in the village of Sukariya, 550 kilometres west of Kathmandu.

“The investigation concluded that Maoist cadres seriously assaulted one male and one female staff member,” the statement said.

The groups expressed regret over the suspension of their work, adding, “But we cannot put our staff at further risk. Maoist rebels have been fighting for a communist republic in Nepal since 1996 and the uprising has already claimed more than 11,000 lives.

Rebels have stepped up operations since King Gyanendra sacked a four-party coalition government February 1 saying it had failed to tackle the rebellion, and seized power himself.—AFP