The group of around 20 smugglers attacked the joint squad of forest guards of Padampur Community Forest and Thangkhola Community Forest and armed forest guards at Simaldhap, according to a member of Thangkhola Community Forests Mohan Lama.[break]
Lama said the smugglers attacked when the forest guards tried to stop smuggling the timbers after the guards encounter the smugglers in the forest.
They attacked the guards using domestic weapons including axe, poachers’ knife, catapult and stones, said Lama. They ran away to the jungle and managed to escape after the forest guards responded with blank fire.
A guard, who was injured in the incident, is undergoing treatment at Bharatpur Medical Collage at Chitwan. The team held Bal Bahadur Rumba, one among the smugglers.
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