3 ultras shot as killing, bomb blasts continue

Security forces shot dead three Maoists and a suspicious individual and rounded up eight rebels in separate incidents across the country during the last 24 hours, the defence ministry said.

Two ultras were killed today in Bardadevi, Achham and one in Chulachuli in the Jhapa-Ilam border area.

A search team in Ankhisalla, Dhankuta retaliated to Maoist fire, killing a suspicious individual.

The rebels set off two powerful bombs. One hit the Nepal Telecommunications Corporation transmission exchange.

The other bomb was targeted at the mobile telephone exchange at Parwanipur in Bara district last night.

The telephone exchange, established at a cost of nearly Rs 10 crore suffered extensive damage, said chief of Nepal Telecommunication Corporation's (NTC) regional directorate Bacchuraim Shrestha, reported RSS.

Radio Nepal's FM relay station based in the NTC office building at Parwanipur was also damaged in the explosion.

The station however resumed transmission following repairs this evening.

But telephone servicesw in Nijgadh, Chandranigahapur, Siimara, Parwanipur and Jitpur in Bara, Parsa and Rautahat districts were affected as a result of the bomb explosion.

The rebels also set off blasts in various places in Bara, including Simara and Pathalaiya.

In Ilam district last night they murdered Lekhnath Chapagain, a 60-year-oid resident of Nasaling who was kidnapped by a group ofnearly 50 people.

Chapagain was beheaded last night and the torso was found near his house, police said.