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Rebel attacks kill 22, strikes cause chaos in Nepal

A fierce attack on a town by Maoist guerrillas left 22 people dead in Nepal, hours before a general strike against the king's grip on power shut down the Himalayan nation yesterday, authorities said.

Rebels bombed government buildings and raided security bases in a southern Nepal town, taking hostages and engaging police in gunbattles, officials said.

Six policemen, six rebels and two civilians were among those killed in the overnight raid in Malangawa, about 120km south of Kathmandu, a police official said, speaking on condition of anonymity for security reasons. The rebels also took 28 hostages, police said.

They fired at soldiers guarding government offices and security posts and attacked a jail, freeing more than 100 inmates -- among them some of their comrades -- before fleeing.

Some policemen and senior bureaucrats were missing after the fighting, Subedi and local journalist Rajesh Mishra said.

A Russian-built Mi-17 army helicopter sent to the area with troops crashed near Malangwa, killing eight of the 10 soldiers on board, an army officer said. The other two men were missing.

The Maoists, making their first such claim, said rebels had shot down the helicopter but the army said the cause was being investigated.

"I saw the helicopter broken into three pieces in a field. Many government buildings are on fire or are smouldering. Unexploded bombs are strewn around," Mishra said.

"People are terror-struck. No one has come out," he said.

News of the raid came as a four-day nationwide strike called by opponents of King Gyanendra shut the Hindu kingdom down.

Nepal's seven main political parties, which called the strike, have vowed to defy a government ban on protests to launch what they expect to be a decisive campaign for democracy.

Although the guerrillas, who are fighting to establish a communist state, are supporting the political groups as part of a pact against the king, they are not participating in the protests and the rallies are expected to be largely peaceful.

Roads across the country of 26 million people were deserted as the strike began. Businesses and schools were shut despite the government's call on people not to heed the strike call.

In the capital, Kathmandu, the center of the campaign, hundreds of riot police and soldiers, some of them in armored vehicles, patrolled deserted streets, while activists burned tyres on roads to enforce the closure.

Young boys played cricket or cycled on what normally are packed thoroughfares.

Police said at least eight cars were smashed by protesters for defying the strike and more than 120 activists were detained. But political parties said about 400 were held.

Pro-democracy protests have become routine since King Gyanendra sacked the government and took power in February last year, saying politicians had failed to quell the insurgency and hold national elections.

Although the political parties have said this week's rallies are expected to be the biggest so far, tight security seemed to be keeping them indoors yesterday. In addition, the royalist government detained activists and politicians on the eve of the strike and imposed a night curfew in the region.
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