Nepal police kill three kidnappers

KATHMANDU - Three people, alleged to be kidnappers who opened fire on a police patrol, were killed in a forested area in southern Nepal Tuesday.

Police said a posse searching for five people who were kidnapped while carting cement in a tractor in Banke in Nepal’s Terai plains were tipped off that the men were being held inside the Fattehpur forest in the district.

While in pursuit of the kidnappers, police said the patrol came under fire inside the forest Tuesday morning. When they retaliated, three of the kidnappers were killed.

All five victims, including the driver of the tractor, Ganesh Chamar, were rescued unhurt, police said.

While the identities of the dead men were not known immediately, a television channel said the kidnappers had claimed to be part of an underground organisation never heard of before - the Nepal Marxist Democratic Youth Tigers.

Police said they had arrested two people who had masterminded the kidnapping.

(Sudeshna Sarkar can be contacted at sudeshna.s@ians.in)