Kathmandu: Maoist rebels slit the throat of a cousin of former Nepalese Prime Minister Surya Bahadur Thapa after abducting him from his ancestral home, a Home Ministry official said today (Jun 25, 2004).

The rebels stormed Thapa's ancestral home in Dhankuta district last night (Jun 24, 2004), abducted his cousin Dhanapati and later killed him by slitting throat, he said.

Dhanapati was the care-taker of the village house.

Meanwhile, the Army said they foiled a major attack planned in central Kathmandu.

Army Brigadier General Netra Bahadur Thapa displayed a huge cache of explosives including 92 homemade bombs and 27 detonators which he said were to be used for a major attack.

Maoists had planned to explode a motorcycle bomb in front of the main gate of the Secretariat, he said.

Elsewhere, three children and two policemen were killed in separate incidents of Maoist-related violence across the Himalayan Kingdom, official sources said.

Two 11-year-old boys, who sustained serious injuries in a Maoist-triggered blast near a school at Kulekhani in Makawanpur district, died while undergoing treatment at Military Hospital in Kathmandu, they said.

His allegation of ill treatment was, however, denied by the jail authorities who told the court that his allegations were baseless.