BBC Nepali Service: What information do you have on the recovery of the bodies of 40 security personnel in Pili?
Brig Gen Deepak Gurung: The bodies show signs that the soldiers were tortured and killed by the Maoists after capture. They were shot in their heads and some of their body parts were mutilated.

You have mentioned there were non-combatants among the security personnel in the Pili camp. Who were they?
They are soldiers with the Royal Nepali Army but they were hired for road construction.
But the army's press release issued on 8 August stated that there were around 100 local people who were hired for construction work. What happened to them?
They were not local people. They were non-military people who had been hired from elsewhere.

Your press statement stated clearly that these non-military persons had been kept in the military camp at Pili. So what are the chances that there were civilians also killed in the clash?
Things are not clear as yet. There are camps for road construction in Rolpa, Rukum, Salyan and Jajarkot also. Even in those places we have hired people like that. These people are non-combatants who are not full soldiers. We hire them because if we take locals for such work, they are scared away by the Maoists.

Were any civilians involved in the construction work?
These workers do wear army uniforms but they are not trained soldiers. They are something like a non-military construction crew.

Apart from them, did the army use any civilians for construction work?
Civilians are never used.