Nepal's Maoist rebels released 325 students and 25 teachers abducted from Sankhuwasabha district in northeastern Nepal, but seized over 700 youths from the same district, the police said today.‘‘The Maoist rebels on Friday freed all the 325 students aged between 12 and 16 and 25 teachers after keeping them in captivity for 48 hours in Sankhuwasabha district on Wednesday,’’ the police said.The rebels had abducted their victims on Wednesday for indoctrination sessions, a local rebel official who identified himself as Prabhat said yesterday.However, the rebels abducted 700 more youths, aged between 18 and 22, from Matchepokhari and Dhoopgaon villages from Sankhuwasabha district yesterday, the police said. Sankhuwasabha district is 390 kilometres northeast of Kathmandu.The Maoists have been using the local youths to dig bunkers to fight against security forces as well as to train them in laying underground mines, a Sankhuwasabha local village chief Bhim Bahadur Gurung said.‘‘The youths were abducted to train them to carry the dead or wounded rebels in course of fighting with the Army,’’ the local police said, quoting former Village Development Council (VDC) chief Shashiraj Upadhyay.Nepal’s human rights groups in a press statement have appealed to the rebels to stop abducting students and youths. —PTI
