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Heavy casualties in Nepal after Maosit attacks

At least 127 people, mostly soldiers and police, have been killed in Nepal following attacks by Maoist insurgents.

South Asia correspondent Jonathan Harley reports, the attacks came despite a state of emergency that was imposed to crush them:

"The attacks took place in two separate districts, Accham, 350 kilometres to the west of the capital Kathmandu and Salrahi, 248 kilometres to the south. They appear to have been designed to intensify pressure on Nepal's Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba as Parliament prepares to vote on whether to extend three month old emergency measures. He's been facing dissent even within his own party and these latest attacks come on the eve of crucial test of his strength. The state of emergency was imposed in November after the rebels broke a ceasefire following a breakdown in peace talks with the government. The Maoists have been fighting for a communist republic in Nepal since 1996, an uprising which has claimed more than 23-hundred lives.

18/02/2002 12:19:11 | ABC Radio Australia News

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