Kathmandu, Mar 5 (PTI) Nepal has been dragged 25 years back due to the decade-long armed insurgency waged by the Maoists, a senior minister said on Wednesday, asserting that the country's development was possible only through peaceful means.

"Ideology is stronger than weapons, and this has been proved by the Maoists, who adopted peaceful politics by laying down their arms in the end," Minister for Communication and Information Technology Prithvi Subba Gurung said during an event to observe the 26th Yadu Memorial Day.

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Yadu Prasad Gautam, the district secretary of the CPN-UML Rukum district committee, was killed by a group of Maoists 26 years ago, while he was involved in an election campaign in Rukum, the Maoist stronghold of Western Nepal.

Nepal "was dragged 25 years back due to the decade-long armed insurgency waged by the Maoists," said Gurung, who is also the spokesperson of the Nepal government.

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"It was their wise decision to abandon arms and pursue peaceful political means," he said, adding the Maoists would have been wiped out if they didn't abandon arms.

"We had a glorious history of overthrowing monarchy by ballots," he said.

The country's development was possible only through peaceful means, he asserted.

The path of peace is the only way for long-term politics, he added.

In 2008, Nepal's Parliament adopted a special resolution that abolished the 240-year-old monarchy through voting, a few years after the successful conclusion of the people's movement that restored democratic rights and brought the Maoists to peaceful politics.

Gurung said that the country was still suffering because of the effects of the violence waged by the Maoists during the insurgency.

He said that revolution cannot happen by copying others.

He added that the Maoists followed the peaceful path after their violent struggle failed to bear fruit.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)