Police removes former Maoist combatants

Police have removed the disqualified former Maoist combatants from the Koteshwor-based head office of CPN-Maoist Centre which they had been occupying since yesterday. Police had used force to chase away the former combatants who had taken control of the head office of the party. Some of the former combatants who were rounded up were detained at the Metropolitan Police Range at Singha Durbar and Nepal Police Club. The former combatants, who had occupied the Maoist- Centre headquarters by locking in the staff yesterday, have warned of more stringent agitation programmes in the future. The former combatants in hundreds in strength captured the head office yesterday and remained there, some with their babies. They had prohibited entry and exit of anyone by padlocking the main gate. The demands of the former combatants include omitting the word 'disqualified' on an unconditional basis, provision of long-term facilities in line with other former combatants, and compensation of the child's right they had been deprived of. United Nations Mission in Nepal, UNMIN had tagged 4,009 former Maoist combatants as disqualified, and evicted them from the cantonments. Most of them were underage minors.