Nepal: Rebels abduct 11 soldiers as blast mishap kills five more

Nepal’s communist rebels abducted 11 unarmed soldiers as they headed home on holiday while at least five more troops were killed in an unrelated explosives mishap at an army barracks, officials said today.

The soldiers were taken captive on Thursday from Ramdittha village, about 310 miles east of Kathmandu, according to Indresh Dahal, a spokesman for the Royal Nepalese Army.

The abduction came just hours after the rebels declared a three-month ceasefire, giving some breathing space to the reinstated Parliament following weeks of often violent protests against the king’s royal dictatorship.

On Friday, politicians proposed a truce with the Maoists – who have battled for a decade to replace Nepal’s constitutional monarchy with a communist state - as they reconvened for the first time in four years after a campaign of street protests forced Kin Gyanendra to relinquish control.

They also proposed elections for a special assembly that would rewrite the constitution.

It was unclear how the soldiers’ abductions would affect the government’s offer of a truce.

The rebels supported the nearly three-week campaign of demonstrations organised by an alliance of seven political parties against the royal government.

On Thursday, the rebels’ elusive leader Prachanda said his group’s fighters would refrain from attacking government targets for three months to allow Parliament time to ready Nepal for elections for the special assembly.

At least five soldiers were killed and nine were wounded in the accidental explosion in an army barracks in the western town of Tamghas about 120 miles west of Kathmandu.

There were no immediate further details on the explosion, said Durga Pokhrel, chief administrator in the district where the explosion occurred.