Sixty-two soldiers of the Royal Nepali Army who were abducted after Maoists attacked the army's Karnali Highway construction camp in Pili of Kalikot on 7 August were freed late Wednesday.

They were released from Lamidanda in Jajarkot at the initiative of an eight-member team of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) who walked two days to mediate the release.

The ICRC said its delegates walked back with the soldiers and ensured that all of them were returning of their own free will. They were handed over to the army at Jajarkot district headquarters late on Thursday.

"The ICRC's confidential bilateral dialogue with the parties to the conflict was key to bringing the operation about," said an agency statement. On Thursday itself, one policeman and a soldier were also handed over to the ICRC by the Maoists in Udayapur. the two had been captured separately in Lahan in late August. Since 2001, the ICRC has now secured the release of 208 policemen, soldiers and civil servants caputred by the Maoists in various incidents.

The army has claimed 64 soldiers were abducted in the Kalikot battle and four remain missing. Ninety-six people were killed in the clash, including 55 soldiers, according to a report released by the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) Wednesday. The report stated that the Maoists forcibly recruited villagers in Kalikot for the attack against mostly non-combatant soldiers recruited to build the highway. "The security personnel of the Pioneer Battalion were equipped with some weapons, general training and combat fatigues for self defence purposes and thus fought throughout the night," concludes the NHRC report.