KATHMANDU, May 26 (Xinhua) -- More than 2,100 schools were affected by the conflict over past six months in five districts of mid-western and far-western Nepal, the Partnerships for Protecting Children in Armed Conflict (PPCC) said here Friday.

    "Education of more than one million students in Banke, Bardiya, Dang, Surkhet and Kailali districts, some 600-700 km west of Kathmandu, had been disrupted while a total of 521 students were abducted," PPCC, a non-government organization, said in a press statement.

    Those abducted students have been reported to be released after they underwent the guerrillas' indoctrination classes, the statement noted.

    The security forces and the guerrillas continued to enter into schools and threaten students and teachers, the statement noted, adding, "They also use the schools as shelter, canteen, security post and other armed and political purpose."

    The survey conducted by PPCC stated that a total of 33 cases of violations had been recorded, while 23 schools had been attacked by the guerrillas, 16 had been forcefully closed, the statement revealed.

    All the parties who had earlier used schools for different political and armed activities such as writing slogans on the walls, digging trenches for attacks, planting mines around school compound should take initiatives to restore peace in the school, the statement added. Enditem