Maoists torch buses, shoot dead college teacher in Nepal

The lecturer, identified as Indra Acharya of Tribhuvan University, was killed in a drive-by shooting carried out by two gunmen on a motorcycle as he was leaving his home in the tourist town of Pokhara, a police spokesman said.

The gunmen, whom police claim were Maoists, escaped after the shooting.

In the southwestern town of Palpa, meanwhile, rebels stopped two buses belonging to the state-run Sajha Yatayat (cooperative transport service), off-loaded passengers, doused the vehicles with petrol and set them alight.

No one was hurt in the incident and the rebels allowed passengers to offload their luggage before torching the buses, he said.

A Sajha Yatayat official said that with the latest incident the rebels had destroyed eight buses of the company in the past six months.

"We do not know why the Maoists have been destroying our buses, which are meant for public service," said company chief executive Mukund Satyal.

The service is 99 percent state-owned with one percent of shares being held by employees.

The Maoist rebels have been fighting to install a communist republic in the world's only Hindu kingdom since 1996. The uprising has claimed more than 10,000 lives.