Source: Times of India
KATHMANDU, NEPAL, May 13, 2002: Some 500 Maoist rebels stormed a Sanskrit university in west Nepal, set the building on fire and destroyed office records, an official said on Monday. District officer Mathur Prasad Yadav said that the guerrillas snapped telephone lines and overpowered the night guard of the Mahendra Sanskrit University in Dang in west Nepal late on Saturday before setting the building ablaze. “No one was injured in the incident,” Yadav said, adding that several office rooms had been destroyed. The rebels, who are fighting to topple the constitutional monarchy in the world’s only Hindu kingdom, oppose the teaching in schools of Sanskrit, an ancient Indian language. HPI adds: Sthaneshwar Timalsina, a Nepali Sanskritist currently at UC Santa Barbara, reports that the rebels reduced to ashes much of Mahendra Sanskrit University’s main campus. Dr. Timalsina estimates that the damage is irreparable.