Nepal Chief Justice survives attack, five killed

Nepal Chief Justice survives attack, five killed
REUTERS

KATHMANDU, FEB 4: Nepal's Chief Justice KeshavPrasad Upadhyay escaped unharmed after an attack by suspected Maoist rebels in West Nepal but four security staff and a Judicial official were killed, an official said.

Upadhyay was on a scheduled inspection tour of West Nepalon Saturday when his team was ambushed and attacked with bombs and gun fire at Painsathhi in Surkhet district.

"Upadhyay is safe after the incident," a home (interior)ministry spokesman said late on Saturday.

He said Baldev Dhital, a senior official of the Surkhetappellate court, who was part of the Chief Justice's team, and four security guards were killed.

Another member of the team, a judge of the same court,Purushottam Parajulia and two security personnel were injured in the same incident and were undergoing treatment at a local hospital, one police official said.

Home ministry spokesman Gopendra Bahadur Pandey blamedMaoist rebels, who are fighting against the 10-year-old constitutional monarchy, for the attack.

There was no immediate word from the Communist Party ofNepal (Maoist) about the attack, the first on a senior court official since the Maoist conflict began five years ago.

The group, considered ideologically close to Peru's ShiningPath guerrillas, has launched an armed campaign to try to install a one-party communist republic in the world's only Hindu kingdom that is among the poorest nations on earth.

More than 1,500 people have been killed in the conflictthat started in early 1996.