Nepal's main opposition supports the government's plan to use the army to crush the Maoist insurgency, a party statement said on Tuesday. “The Nepal Communist Party United-Marxist and Leninist (NCP-UML) emphasized the need to end the feeling of insecurity and the widespread violence in the country,” the statement said. "This is the demand of the people," it said.

The government is considering deploying the army to quell the Maoist insurgency in eight of the far northwestern and western districts of Nepal. "The attention of the NCP-UML has been drawn to the widespread discussion regarding the role of the army in the context of the Maoists and the Dolpa incident," the statement said.

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Sixteen policemen were killed and 36 injured last Monday when more than 2,000 Maoist guerrillas attacked a police station in northwest Dolpa district. “The police were ill-equipped and ineffective against well-trained and heavily-armed guerrillas, a high-level police,” source said.

The military did not intervene even though an army barracks was close by, police said. The army had said it could not act without orders from higher authorities.

"In all the democratic countries, the army is under the elected government and the constitution has also clearly outlined the role of the army," the NCP-UML statement said. Before tendering his resignation last week for failing to maintain law and order, home minister Govinda Raj Joshi charged the army had not helped the police in the fight against the rebels.
"The army also did not supply the police 236,112 dollars worth of arms to fight the Maoists," Joshi said.

Bureau Report