NEPAL: Nepal anti-monarchy protests intensify with rising violence

Record ID: 872643

  • Title: NEPAL: Nepal anti-monarchy protests intensify with rising violence
  • Date: 17th April 2006
  • Summary: POLICE DETAINING CRYING PROTESTER
  • Embargoed: 2nd May 2006 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Nepal
  • City:
  • Country: Nepal
  • Topics: Domestic Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVA9N00M5VJAOLSYH4O7N3EC0T1A
  • Aspect Ratio:
  • Story Text: Day-long anti-monarchy protests around Kathmandu on Sunday (April 16) turned violent as police fired tear gas and baton-charged demonstrators.
    Protesters in the world's only Hindu kingdom have demonstrated for 11 days against King Gyanendra's rule after the opposition and Maoist rebels called for a strike on April 6.
    They chanted anti-monarchy slogans and pelted police with stones in the afternoon protests in Balakhu district in Kathmandu.
    Armed riot police fired rounds of tear gas shells and used batons to chase and detain the protesters in running battles in Kathmandu.
    Protesters repeated pelting the police with stones, with some of them using catapults.
    Several policemen and protesters were injured and were treated by the Red Cross.
    In other protests across the Nepali capital city, protesters burnt tyres in several alleys and scattered flyers that protested the king's rule. Police were seen putting out the flames as they chased the protesters in a maze of alleys.
    Since Sunday is not a holiday in Nepal, many people could be seen walking to work down Kathmandu's main thoroughfares.
    King Gyanendra sacked the government and assumed full power in February 2005. A seven-party political alliance, which has been opposing him since then, launched a general strike on April 6, bringing the nation to a standstill.
    At least four people have been killed and hundreds wounded in police firing and baton charges on demonstrators. But neither side looks likely to back down from the confrontation.
    The king has offered to hold elections by April next year, but activists say he is not to be trusted and should immediately hand over power to an all-party government.
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