Nepal exams under security cordon

Recent bomb attacks have heightened fears

Heavy security is in place across Nepal for the beginning of nation-wide school exams involving a quarter of a million students.

Maoists are protesting at the state of emergency

Thousands of security personnel have been deployed cross the country to ensure that the examinations are conducted peacefully.

Although fears of violence had subsided after the Maoist rebels called off a five-day general strike scheduled to begin today, the authorities said that they are not taking any chances.

The rebels are fighting to replace the constitutional monarchy with a communist republic.

So far, some 3,000 people have died in six years of fighting.

Strike protest

The decision to call off the strike came after widespread pressure on the rebels not to disrupt the school exams.

Considering the future of the students and requests from the intellectual community, guardians and friendly political forces, our party has decided to postpone the general strike

Rebel statement

Earlier, the Maoist rebels had threatened to disrupt the exams with a general strike which they had called to protest at the four-month-old state of emergency and the military operation against them.

The intensification of rebel attacks on government installations, including power stations, telephone towers and village council buildings, and a number of bomb explosions ahead of the strike, had increased the sense of fear among ordinary people.

However, the BBC's Sushil Sharma in Kathmandu says that this fear subsided considerably after the rebels were forced to defer the strike to a later date, although an air of uneasiness still persists.

Human rights charge

Meanwhile, the national human rights commission has accused the Maoist rebels of committing serious human rights abuses.

In its first annual report, the commission said that its appeal to stop the violence and killings has had no impact on the rebels.

The commission said that the government had also been responsible for abuses.

It complained that the government did not fully co-operate with the commission.

A state of emergency and military operation have been in place since last November to crush the Maoist rebels whom the authorities say are terrorists.