The anti-government guerrillas have abducted more than 300 students from various schools in Okaldhunga district in eastern Nepal, according to a local police office statement released Wednesday.

The guerrillas have abducted students of lower secondary and secondary level in as many as 18 schools in Okaldhunga district, some 100 km east of Kathmandu, in the last couple of days, said the statement.

Teachers and guardians said the guerrillas forcefully took away students of grade 8, 9 and 10, saying they would be returned after participating in a four-day training program on ideological education at an undisclosed location.

Guardians and school administrations have expressed worries about the safety of the students who were abducted when their examinations were going on.

The abduction has terrorized the entire education sector in the region while students have stopped going to schools for fear of being abducted, the police added.

(Xinhua News Agency March 9, 2006)