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Nearly 50 security persons have been killed in the two lethal attacks launched by Maoists in west Nepal on Thursday night.
The incidents took place a few hours after Maoist leader Krishna Bahadur Mahara challenged the government in a rare television interview. He termed the violent agitation going on in the Himalayan kingdom as 'a people's war, a people's movement'.
While 24 security persons --- 20 policemen and four soldiers --- lost their lives in a violent overnight attack in Khalanga, headquarters of Jumla district, 23 policemen were killed in another attack in Gorkha district.
"Twenty-four bodies of the rebels have already been recovered from the site," Colonel Deepak Gurung, spokesman for the Royal Nepal Army, confirmed, adding that locals say many bodies were carried away in bamboo baskets by the surviving rebels.
Around the same time, another group of armed rebels attacked the area police office at Tarkukot, in north Gorkha district, which lies about 200km northwest of Kathmandu.
While a dozen injured have been flown to Kathmandu and Pokhara for medical treatment, 23 policemen are confirmed dead, Superintendent of Police Kumar Koirala said from Pokhara.
"Reinforcements have been sent to the area, and the toll is expected to rise," Colonel Gurung told rediff.com
The rebels also bombed and set fire to most of the government office buildings, including an airport tower in the mountain hub.
They also looted cash and jewellery worth more than Rs 20 million from the Nepal Bank's Khalanga branch.
Meanwhile, accounts given by locals in Jumla suggest that the attack in Khalanga was expected. "Several people of Jumla flying into Nepalgunj were talking about the Maoist warning on Wednesday and Thursday," said Jeewan Pande, a journalist from Nepalgunj.
Over 7,000 Nepalese, 4,000 of them Maoists, have lost their lives in the 'people's war'.
EARLIER REPORT: Maoists attack government sites, kill 11 security personnel
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