Review of the battles at the Counterinsurgency War in Nepal: Khara and Pili
Review of the battles at the Counterinsurgency War in Nepal Originally published: https://www.himalmag.com/the-lost-battles-of-khara-and-pili/ The lost battles of Khara and Pili September 2008 By Sam Cowan Despite the importance of the clashes at Khara and Pili in turning the trends of Nepal’s decade-long war, both sides have worked to bury the memory of these battles. Artwork : Venantius J Pinto The 10 years of the Maoist conflict in Nepal, 1996-2006, cost just over 13,000 lives. About 8000 were killed by the security forces. Many of those who died were civilians, and some thousands were extra-judicially executed or ‘disappeared’ – again, the great majority by the security forces. An unquantifiable number of combatants were killed in battles and genuine encounters between the Royal Nepal Army (RNA) and the armed wing of the Maoists, the ‘People’s Liberation Army’ (PLA). About 350 of these individuals were killed in two battles that took place in 2005:...