Protesters defy shoot-on-site orders to demand democracy in Nepal
One protester was killed yesterday when police opened fire in Banepa, about 30 kilometres east of the capital Kathmandu, when demonstrators tried to storm a police post, a Home Ministry official said.
The death was the third in a four-day general strike called by opposition parties.
In Katmandu yesterday, police used tear gas to disperse hundreds of pro-democracy protesters who clashed with police in at least four locations.
More than 2,000 people protested in the southern town of Bharatpur, 145km south-west of Katmandu, where a demonstrator was shot dead a day earlier.
Protests against King Gyanendra have escalated during the opposition general strike, backed for the first time by communist rebels.
The royal government expanded the dawn-to-dusk curfew to a third city - the western resort town of Pokhara - where King Gyanendra is on holiday.
The government has authorised police to shoot anyone breaking the curfew.
A protester was killed on Saturday by troops in Pokhara.
Saturday’s violence came on the 16th anniversary of the introduction of democracy in Nepal, an experiment that King Gyanendra ended last year when he reclaimed absolute power.
At the time, he said the move was needed to bring order to a chaotic and corrupt political scene and to end an anti-monarchy communist insurgency that has killed nearly 13,000 people in the past decade.
Many Nepalis at first welcomed the king’s move. But the insurgency since has worsened and the economy has faltered, fuelling the discontent that has been on display in recent days as thousands of workers, professionals and business people have for the first time joined students and political activists at protests.
The crackdown on the opposition has prompted condemnations from the US, Japan, the EU and India, all of which have been critical of the king’s power grab.
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