In one of the most daring acts since the initiation of the people's war in Nepal, the Maoist guerrillas raided a police outpost at Bethan in Ramechhap district in eastern Nepal on January 3, 1997 and seized arms and ammunitions. Armed with local guns and pistol and home-made bombs, 29 guerrillas raided the armed police post in one of the most backward hilly regions some 100 km east of the capital city of Kathmandu and seized four rifles and hundreds of rounds of ammunitions.
On the night of January 3, in a meticulously planned move the guerrillas
surrounded the police outpost and ordered the policemen to surrender. However,
as the mercenaries of the reactionary state shut themselves up in the building
and resorted to indiscriminate firing on the guerrillas from the windows,
there ensured a heavy exchange of fire for several hours Meanwhile in the
darkness of the night Corn. Tirtha Gautam, the commander of the raid operation,
was hit by a bullet on his head and attained martyrdom instantly. This fueled
the fire and inspired the guerrillas to mount their attack more vigorously.
In this course two of the running dogs of the reactionary state were killed
and two others were seriously injured. On the guerrilla side two more fighters,
Com. Dilmaya Yonjan, a young woman guerrilla squad member, and Com. Fateh
Bahadur Slami, another guerrilla squad member, attained martyrdom. Finally
the enemy was over powered; rifles, ammunitions and other valuable &
utilities were seized and the police outpost was totally destroyed. Amidst
shouting of revolutionary slogans like 'Long live Marxism-Leninism-Maoism!,
'Long live the people's war' end others, the guerrillas carried away their
fallen comrades and returned to safety.
As this was the single largest blow suffered by the reactionary state during
the Second Plan of the people's war, it mounted vicious counterattack with
search helicopters hovering over the remote mountain jungles and brutal combing
operations all over the region, but in vain. Despite the loss of three precious
lives of valiant guerrillas, this successful raid electrified the revolutionary
aspirations of the toiling masses and sent chills down the spine of the
reactionaries. It also signalled the steady development of the people's war
to a higher stage. Hence the historic significance of this action in the
early phase of the people's war has been duly recognised by the Party, and
even by the national media.