Maoist cause more than $1 million damages
Maoist rebels attacked development and infrastructure projects Sunday in rural Nepal, causing more than one million dollars of damage ahead of a general strike, police said.
Maoist rebels attacked development and infrastructure projects Sunday in rural Nepal, causing more than one million dollars of damage ahead of a general strike, police said.
More than 150 Maoists launched a nighttime raid on a building providing agricultural training in the southeastern Dhanusha district, setting off a bomb and torching 14 government-owned vehicles, police said.
They also bombed an irrigation project, a bridge and a government transportation office in the district, police said.
No one was injured, but a police officer estimated damage at nearly 90 million rupees (1.28 million dollars).
The attacks came before a day-long strike begun in the troubled district called by the Maoists to protest alleged killings of their activists by security forces.
The rebels plan a nationwide strike from May 18 to 20.
The Maoists, who want to overthrow the monarchy, have regularly demolished infrastructure in their bid to rid the countryside of any signs of the Kathmandu-based government.
The insurgency has claimed more than 9,500 lives since 1996.