Kathmandu, February 10
Nepali police smothered the first political protest on Thursday against King Gyanendra's assumption of power and suspension of civil liberties, by arresting the handful of demonstrators who turned up.At least 12 persons were thrown into vans by the police in riot gear as they turned up in ones and twos at a heavily guarded traffic intersection in the centre of Kathmandu. They were quickly driven away, witnesses and the Human Rights and Peace Society, which organised the protest, said.
"Give our rights back! democracy is in our soul!" shouted one woman, before she was bundled off. Another protester waved a black cloth as a group of policemen lifted him into a blue wire-meshed van. "Withdraw the royal proclamation," another shouted.
Elsewhere in the troubled Hindu kingdom, dozens of Maoists, armed with crude bombs, stormed a jail in western Nepal overnight, freeing about 150 prisoners including rebels, in the first big strike since Gyanendra's power grab, an army officer said.
Five policemen were killed in the jail storming in Dhangadi, 660 km (410 miles) west of Kathmandu, a stronghold of the Maoists who mark the ninth anniversary of their revolt to overthrow the monarchy this weekend.
The guerrillas broke open the prison gates after a 90-minute firefight with policemen. The body of one man, suspected to be a rebel, was found outside the jail.
"We believe more rebels might have died in the battle," the officer said.
In Kathmandu, political activists hoped the protest in the centre of the Capital would help ignite a nationwide campaign against the monarch's decision last week to sack the government, detain political leaders and suspend civil rights.
The demonstrators quietly walked to the site of the protest near the Singha Durbar, the seat of the Nepali government and parliament, to avoid detection by dozens of grim-faced policemen lining the street or watching from open trucks.
In one of the first signs that he was trying to ease tension, Gyanendra released seven arrested political leaders, including two former prime ministers unlikely to lead protests.
— Reuters
