Five children were killed and three others wounded in western Nepal when a crude bomb left by suspected Maoist rebels exploded, an army officer said today. Details of the explosion in the Maoist heartland of Rolpa district on Saturday were not immediately available.
"This is the height of Maoist atrocities," the army officer told Reuters news agency. The incident came as King Gyanendra was on a nine-day Asian trip, his first foreign tour since his February 1st power grab.
Gyanendra, vowing to end a nine-year Maoist revolt, fired the government, imposed a state of emergency and detained political leaders. The 57-year-old king said his actions were necessary to protect democracy from the risk posed by the Maoist insurgency against the monarchy.
More than 11,000 people have been killed since the revolt erupted in 1996. The conflict has also scared away tourists - a key source of income for one of the world's poorest countries. The Maoists want to abolish Nepal's constitutional monarchy and establish a communist republic in its place. Rights groups say that at least 375 children have been killed since the Maoists launched their revolt.
Earlier this month, the Maoists called for an indefinite closure of 8,500 private schools with an enrolment of around 1.5 million children, saying the institutions were beyond the reach of poor students.
The call has forced a number of schools in the countryside to shut down although educational institutions in Kathmandu, the capital, remained open with additional security. The elusive Maoist leader "Prachanda" has ruled out talks or a ceasefire with the government and said the rebels would soon come to power by ousting what he called "mediaeval and barbaric feudal autocrats".