KATHMANDU - Suspected Maoist rebels gunned down a royalist election candidate in broad daylight near his office in southeast Nepal while the death toll in two weekend clashes between rebels and soldiers reached 28, police said on Monday.The candidate was shot Sunday in the town of Janakpur, 380 kilometres (240 miles) southeast of Kathmandu, a police official said. “Two rebels shot at Bijaya Lal Das, president of the Nepal Sadhbhawana Party Dhanusha district, near his party office... Sunday afternoon and fled the scene,” Janakpur police officer Dor Bahadur Khadka told AFP. “Das was shot three times in the chest and died while being rushed to a nearby hospital.”
Das had recently announced that he would run for mayor of the municipality.