Kathmandu, Jan 29: Maoist insurgents have released all 150 students, who were abducted and forced to join Maoist meetings in various parts of Nepal's far West Achham district, the Nepali language daily ''Kantipur'' reported today. The rebels allegedly abducted them a week ago from Bannatoli and other villages in Achham district, about 460 km west of the capital, to join their insurgency campaign.

The students were moved to different villages in the district where they were forced to give speeches supporting the Maoist ideology, the newspaper quoted villagers as saying.

The rebels also forcibly collected donations from villagers in rural areas.
Meanwhile, the security system in the Kathmandu valley has been placed under a ''unified command'' to systematize the law and order situation in the capital, the official Nepalese news agency RSS said today quoting Nepalese Home Ministry officials.

Home ministry spokesman Gopendra Bahadur Pandey made it clear that the army was not being mobilized to contain the movement of the five main political parties, according to RSS.

Nepal's five biggest political parties, backed by their student wings, are protesting against what they call King Gyanendra's ''regressive'' move of October 2002 to dismiss an elected government.
Pandey added that the army will not be used to contain the anti-king movement ''as long as the protestors remained within the parameters and rights specified by the constitution''.


But, the government would detain elements involved in anti-constitutional activities, such as throwing stones at security personnel, vandalizing public transport vehicles, arson and inciting rebellion, the spokesman was quoted as saying.

He also said the local administration detained 103 demonstrators participating in demonstrations and involved in vandalism and arson in separate incidents yesterday.
Bureau Report