Maoist attacks 'will not deter polls'

Kathmandu: Nepal will go ahead with next month's municipal polls despite Maoist attacks around the capital in which 12 policemen were killed, a minister said yesterday.

Five blasts hit the Kathmandu area on Saturday.

The deadliest attack occurred in Thankot, 10 km from the capital, where heavily armed rebels tossed a bomb at a police post and sprayed bullets from automatic rifles, killing 11 policemen.

In another attack, near the temple town of Bhaktapur, one policeman was killed and eight people, including seven policemen, were wounded, state television said.

Two policemen were also missing after the attack, officials said.

"These incidents will not deter the elections," junior information minister Shris Shumsher Rana told Reuters in the first official comments after the attacks.

"Since the Kathmandu targets have high propaganda value the utility of such incidents becomes evident for those who would want to impede elections," Rana said.

The attacks were the first near the high-security capital, home to 1.5 million people, since Maoist rebels ended their four-month truce on January 2, after the government refused to match it.

The upsurge in violence follows a period of relative calm and comes as King Gyanendra, who dismissed the government and took power last year, prepares to hold civic polls next month which have been opposed by the Maoists and political parties.