Curfew and shoot-on-sight orders have been extended on the Nepalese capital to Friday morning, state television announced. ”The curfew has been extended until 3am on Friday,” said an onscreen strap-line announcement.
The royal government had imposed the measure on Kathmandu from 2am Thursday until 8pm to thwart a mass demonstration organised by a seven-party opposition alliance.
But the grouping that spearheads a pro-democracy campaign against the king of Nepal called for a new mass rally in the capital on Friday.
A general strike that has crippled the country entered its 15th day on Thursday and ”will continue with more intensity in the capital and across the country until further notice”, the parties said.
The royal government clamped an 18-hour curfew inside the capital’s ring road on Thursday, but huge crowds turned out to challenge armed police and soldiers protecting the city centre.
However, Nepalese police on Thursday shot dead three people and wounded scores more when tens of thousands of pro-democracy demonstrators defied shoot-on-sight curfew orders in Kathmandu, a doctor and witnesses said.
Huge crowds tested the resolve of armed police and soldiers stationed around the ring road to protect the inner-city curfew, Agence France-Presse correspondents reported. Violence erupted at several spots as security forces dispersed demonstrators with a mixture of gunfire, tear gas and baton charges, leaving a trail of casualties.
At the royal palace a special Indian envoy stressed to King Gyanendra ”the objective of urgently restoring multi-party democracy” after he seized absolute power 14 months ago, New Delhi’s embassy said.
Envoy Karan Singh later said he was ”hopeful that the king will make an announcement shortly”.
”The ball is in the king’s court,” he said.
Official sources said the king was expected to look once again to the political old guard to form a new government but strike leaders have dismissed the veterans in their seventies and eighties as history.
Outside on the streets, demonstrators were dying.
New mass rally called for
But the seven-party alliance spearheading the pro-democracy campaign called for a new mass rally in the capital on Friday.
”We appeal to all people to participate in the massive demonstration on Ring Road on Friday at 12-noon,” a mass-movement coordinating committee said. Their statement warned that the royal government might enforce another curfew. ”Our movement is successfully moving forward despite the state’s excessive use of force during demonstrations nationwide,” it said.
A doctor said three of at least 40 injured protesters brought into his hospital had died. ”Most of the injured had bullet wounds. About 12 are in serious condition,” said Dr Deepak Regmi from Kathmandu’s Model Hospital.
Some 35 people were injured in the capital’s northern suburb of Gongabu when police beat back a huge crowd with bamboo sticks, an AFP reporter said. At Kalanki, on the west side of the capital, police using self-loading rifles aimed and fired in the direction of the massed protesters, a photographer said.
One young man was left dead on the ground, blood oozing from his head, as the protesters retreated. Witnesses and a human rights activist said they also saw a woman and child apparently lifeless. Tear gas was also fired and at least three men had been beaten unconscious during a baton charge, the photographer added.
Thousands upon thousands of pro-democracy activists shouting slogans against Gyanendra had marched to Kalanki, a main entry point to Kathmandu.
”I can see a sea of people covering the road over 3km’s distance,” said Rajendra Manandhar, who was watching from a rooftop.
At Gongabu, thousands more waved party flags and chanted: ”Down with Gyanendra, long live democracy.”
”We are ready to sacrifice our lives for democracy,” said Sanyam Poudel. ”We are not scared of them,” continued the 22-year-old. ”We gave many chances to the royal family but the king has misunderstood us.”
At Chabahil to the north-east, an estimated 10 000 people also rallied to demand the restoration of democracy.
The curfew was declared after witnesses said four protesters were shot dead and many more wounded during clashes on Wednesday in eastern Nepal, the worst violence of the campaign to end Gyanendra’s absolute rule.
The defence ministry said only two people died. Whoever was right, the death toll over the last two weeks has crossed into double figures.
International flights were in operation, an official at Kathmandu airport said, but domestic links had been cancelled. — AFP
