Trekkers deny they were kidnapped

By Charles Haviland
BBC News, Kathmandu

The trekkers were heading towards Mount Everest

Four Polish trekkers in Nepal who had been reported kidnapped by Maoist rebels say they are safe in the village of Lukla in the Mount Everest region.

A colleague of the trekkers said they had phoned him last week to say they had been kidnapped.

But both the trekkers and the Maoists have now denied that.

Last year two Russian trekkers were injured in a Maoist landmine blast but the rebels have never directly targeted foreigners with violence.

Maoist stronghold

The Polish hikers set off last Tuesday to begin the overland route to the Everest region in eastern Nepal.

It is a trek which goes through country dominated by the Maoists.

Two of the trekkers were working with a language promotion group, the Nepal Esperanto Association.

Earlier, an office holder in the association said they had telephoned his home on Thursday saying they were being held by Maoists in the district of Dolakha and were in trouble and needed help.

A Nepalese human rights organisation appealed to the rebel group to release them.

Concern also came from the country's tourism and trekking sector, a major earner for the conflict-hit kingdom.

But the visitors from Poland have now phoned the Nepal Mountaineering Association from the Sherpa village of Lukla.

They said they had had arguments with Maoists they met en route but that were never abducted.

Earlier local rebel officials had told the BBC it was against their policy to kidnap tourists.

Maoists regularly collect what they call a tax from foreign visitors but hitherto they have not kidnapped such people.