Nepalese army kills Maoist rebels in battle for hostages

The Nepalese army was reported yesterday to have killed more than 150 Maoist guerrillas in an attempt to rescue 71 police officers taken hostage by the rebels last week.

It was the army's first skirmish with the rebels, whose offer to trade the police for Maoists held in government prisons was rejected.

The clashes took place in the village of Holery, in the remote and undeveloped far west of Nepal, 240 miles (390km) from Kathmandu.

The previous day the Maoists had shot down an army helicopter bringing in troops, injuring three soldiers. Local journalists reported that the army had surrounded the village to force the rebels to release the policemen. The rebels were reported to be using the police as human shields.

Officials in Kathmandu were tight-lipped about the battle. The top Home Ministry official, Srikanta Regmi, said the rebels holding the policemen "have been spotted. We are trying to achieve our mission without any casualties or bloodshed".

A Defence Ministry spokesman said only: "We have not received any information about the Maoist casualties." Officials also refused to be drawn on a report in a Kathmandu newspaper claiming that the 47,000-strong army was on "red alert" to put down the rebellion in the Himalayan kingdom.

This first clash between the Royal Nepal Army and the Maoists was probably ordered by King Gyanendra, who ascended the throne on 4 June after his nephew, Crown Prince Dipendra, killed his parents, King Birendra and Queen Aishwarya, and most other members of the royal family before shooting himself.

Gyanendra's ascension led to riots in the capital by grieving Nepalese who believed that the massacre was his doing. He has endorsed the liberal, pro-democratic policies of Birendra, who gave up autocratic power and became a constitutional monarch after an uprising in 1990.

However, Gyanendra is believed to hold tough views on law and order.

Birendra never used the army against the numerous but poorly-armed rebels, whose uprising began in 1996 and has led to 1,800 deaths. But the police, also poorly armed and with low morale, have proved no match for the rebels, who killed 40 of them in three clashes a fortnight ago.

The rebels, who look to Peru's Shining Path for inspiration, now control several districts in rural areas, where they have set up "people's governments".

Since the royal massacre the rebels have stepped up the pressure, clearly hoping for a breakthrough, and have declared war on the new king and his old and weak Prime Minister, Girija Koirala. The weekend battle could prove to be the first important clash in a war for control of the Nepalese state.