KATHMANDU, Aug 28: Maoist rebels in Nepal have torched a bus and abducted 202 people from various places in the past few days, the army alleged on Sunday. “The terrorists stopped a passenger bus and torched it at Sishubari in Udayapur district Sunday,” a statement said.

It did not say what happened to the passengers but normally the rebels order them off before torching buses.

The Maoists abducted a passenger travelling on another bus in the same district east of Kathmandu and took him to an unknown destination, it said.

The statement said the guerrillas abducted an old man at Gogane area in Makwanpur district south of the capital last Wednesday and on Thursday they kidnapped 150 others from Dhimegaun in Bajura district in the far west.

Also on Thursday another group of 50 people was abducted from the Jagannath area of Bajura district, the army said.

The rebels normally kidnap people including school students for indoctrination into Maoist ideology and release them after a few days.

The rebels have been fighting for a communist republic in Nepal since 1996 and the uprising has already claimed more than 12,000 lives.—AFP