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KATHMANDU, Nov 26: Nepal has declared a state of emergency across the country following Maoist attacks which have left more than 280 people dead, state-run television announced on Monday.
King Gyanendra imposed the state of emergency with immediate effect, said a royal palace statement read out on air.
“His Majesty the King has, in accordance with the constitution of Nepal, declared a state of emergency in respect of the whole of the kingdom of Nepal,” it said.
The devastating Maoist attacks on police and army posts across Nepal began on Friday, bringing to a bloody end a four-month ceasefire with the government.
“The emergency was announced to maintain law and order in the country following the violence unleashed by the Maoists,” the statement said.
Gyanendra, who became king in June after a royal massacre killed ten members of the royal family, declared the emergency on the advice of Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba
The emergency has to be retrospectively approved by the lower house of parliament within three months.
ATTACKS: Some 200 Maoist rebels, around 30 police officers and soldiers and two civilians were killed Sunday when the guerrillas attacked administrative, police and army facilities in Solukhumbu district, 280 kilometres (170 miles) northeast of Kathmandu, officials said.
“The local police post, the district administration office, the official residence of the chief district officer, the customs and revenue offices and the airport tower were completely destroyed in a bomb attack, as well as three private houses,” a government statement said.
Maoists also looted a bank, ransacked a court building and released prisoners from a local jail, the statement said.
Nearly 50 people, mostly members of the security forces, had already died since Friday when the rebels broke a four-month ceasefire and launched a string of attacks on police and army posts, banks and civil offices.
The attacks continued on Monday with three soldiers killed when their truck drove over a pipe bomb set by Maoists in Pyuthan district, 390 kilometres west of Kathmandu. A police post in the same area was also set on fire.
In response to the escalating violence, Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba held a two-hour emergency meeting Monday which agreed to ask the king to immediately pass an ordinance allowing the government to declare a state of emergency.
Once the king has passed the ordinance, the government will officially ask him to declare a state of emergency in order to combat the Maoist threat, a cabinet source said.
A state of emergency would allow the government to use the full force of the army against the rebels, something it has previously refrained from doing in fear it could lead to civil war.
NEW DELHI ASKED: Meanwhile, Nepal has asked New Delhi to put its border security forces on high alert to prevent any rebels seeking shelter in India.
A Nepali official asked the chief minister of West Bengal state, which borders eastern Nepal, to tighten security along the frontier.
“Nepal is very concerned over the recent Maoist attacks in its eastern part. I have urged the chief minister to beef up the security at the West Bengal border with Nepal,” Kathmandu’s consul general in Calcutta, Yubaraj Bhusal, told AFP.
Hopes had risen that a settlement between the government and the rebels could be reached when a ceasefire was called in July.
Three rounds of peace talks have taken place since then, but had stalled over the rebels’ demand for a republic. Earlier this month they said they had “deferred” the demand ahead of a fourth round of talks, which was supposed to take place in the next few weeks.
But the Maoists are still insisting a “constituent assembly” be formed to redraft the constitution, something the government opposes.—AFP
