Maoist insurgents abruptly abandoned peace talks with the government Nov. 21 and then launched massive attacks over the weekend that produced the worst violence in five years of the insurgency with more than 100 people killed. Attacks took place at security posts in the west and at Salleri in the Solukumbu in the east, where the airstrip at Phaplu was bombed. The attacks prompted the king to declare a state of emergency at the request of the government, and call on the army to crush the rebels. Civil war, which had been scrupulously avoided, now seems likely. Under the state of emergency authorities have powers of search and detention.
