Nepal frees 190 jailed Maoist rebels

A family member hugs a Maoist student covered with vermilion upon his release from Nakhu jail near Kathmandu yesterday. The Maoists said that the government has agreed to release over 350 prisoners across the country in a bid to kick-start the high level second round of peace talks between government and Maoist rebels. PHOTO: AFP

Home Ministry spokesman Daman Prasad Neupane said they were freed from jails in nine different cities and towns across this Himalayan nation on Tuesday following government announcement a day earlier that anyone jailed under a tough anti-terrorism law imposed by the previous government of King Gyanendra would be freed.

Maoist prisoners detained under a scrapped anti-terror law walked free from jails in Nepal's capital yesterday, a prisons official said.

The new government and Maoist rebels have been observing a ceasefire for more than a month after King Gyanendra was forced to end 14 months of widely criticized direct rule in April.

"We have been released due to the people's struggle," said Himal Sharma, a former general secretary of a Maoist-affiliated student union group.

Hundreds of well wishers and family members met the prisoners, who raised their fists in a communist salute and chanted Maoist slogans as they were released Tuesday afternoon.

They were greeted with flower garlands and sprinkled with red celebratory powder.

Sharma had been held for the past two years in Nakkhu jail in the capital under the Terrorist and Disruptive Activities (Control and Punishment) Ordinance (TADO).

"Sixty-one from Nakkhu jail and eight from the central jail were released Tuesday," said Deepak Joshi, director general of the department of prisons.