Maoist rebels have burned down the country home of Nepal's Prime Minister Mr Sher Bahadur Deuba in the west of the kingdom, officials said today. Mr Deuba was in Kathmandu at the time.
A group of rebels surrounded the house last night and ordered a housekeeper to leave before torching the residence at Assigram, 490 kilometers west of the capital Kathmandu.
No more details were immediately available. The attack came on the first day of a nationwide strike called by the Maoists, who have been fighting since 1996 to topple the constitutional monarchy.
Some 3,100 people have died in the insurgency, more than a third of them since the Maoists broke off talks with Mr Deuba's government in November.
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AFP