Suspected Maoist rebels abducted some 200 teenagers from two schools in western Nepal. Armed rebels raided the Nandeswari Secondary School in Achham district, 445 kilometres west of Kathmandu, and took away 130 boys and girls, the official said. Seventy other students were taken away on Thursday from the Bindeswari school in the same district, he said. Security forces did not know where the children were taken but that troops have launched a search. A security official said the rebels may have wanted to train the children as reinforcements for their self-styled People's Liberation Army. Officials say at least 300 teachers and students have died since the Maoists launched their insurgency in 1996, with the rebels viewing schools as symbols of government authority.
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