Around a dozen people have been injured in several clashes between Maoist activists and government forces in Nepal.

 

Local officials said that six policemen were among those hurt in the violence which broke out on Sunday.

 

The violence comes just days after the former rebels joined the political mainstream by entering the country's parliament.

The policemen were wounded when 200 Maoists, carrying batons and stones, attacked a police post on Saturday, at Patabhar, 350km southwest of Kathmandu, Nepal's capital.

"Three of the wounded policemen have been rushed to a nearby hospital with head injuries," Shiva Nepal, a district official, said.

 

"The Maoists ransacked the post, threw out belongings and utensils of the policemen before leaving the area," he added.

 

Maoist leaders were not immediately available for comment.

 

 

Several Maoists demonstrators were reported to have been injured in this incident and in other violence on Sunday.

 

Nearly 2,000 police posts, closed during the 10-year anti-monarchy Maoist revolt, are being reopened across Nepal after rebels and the government signed a peace deal in November.

 

On Sunday, authorities imposed a curfew to prevent further clashes in the southeastern town of Lahan, where a 16-year-old boy was killed when a former rebel shot at a crowd of protesters two days ago, another official said.