Suspected Maoist rebels yesterday gunned down a pedestrian in the Nepalese capital, causing new jitters in a city weathering a guerrilla blockade for the past six days.
Prem Bahadur Thokare, a small-time contractor, was hit by two bullets as he walked past the tightly guarded home of an army officer in the capital's outlying Kapan Sawaraswoti Nagar area, police said.
Dozens of panicked residents gathered around Thokare's bloodied body as it lay on the pavement, searching for a way to take him to hospital.
"Everyone started looking for money to provide a cash deposit to the hospital so he could get treatment, but while we were preparing to take him he succumbed to his injuries," neighbor Sunder Wagle said.
It was the latest targeted killing in the city of 1.5 million people, a strategy observers said was meant to trigger fear alongside the blockade which has been largely symbolic.
"The Maoists' main objective is to create panic. The closure of the roads has not been fully successful, so they are trying additional methods," academic and political analyst Prakash Joshi said.
The government yesterday said that a committee had been formed under Deputy Prime Minister Bharat Mohan Adhikhari to monitor supplies of produce and ensure security for transporters.
The Maoists, who are fighting to overthrow the Himalayan state's monarchy, say the blockade should pressure the two-month-old government into agreeing to immediate peace talks. The blockade is being enforced mainly through psychological fear of reprisals rather than physical roadblocks.
Hundreds of trucks continue to venture daily into the Kathmandu Valley, where armed police and soldiers frisk incoming passengers and check the identity of all going out.
While local markets remain well stocked with produce, prices have shot up, leading to fears that a prolonged blockade could be devastating.
Transport operators said the hidden victims of the blockade have been those who depend on a normal flow of traffic.
"People who sell tea and fruits on the side of the highway are starving. This kind of blockade would not serve the interests of anybody," said Hira Udas, chairman of the Federation of Nepalese Transport Entrepreneurs.
The Maoists announced a fresh blockade from Saturday to stop traffic entering from the border with Tibet.
Joshi saw the blockade of the northern border as a pressure tactic aimed at the poor, who are the primary support base of the rebels in the largely agrarian kingdom.
Nepal each year imports some US$72 million in Chinese goods, largely manufactured wares not made locally, which customers of modest means can buy at a fraction of the cost of comparable products from neighboring India.
The rebels late on Saturday raided the remote town of Khalanga, headquarters of the mountainous Jumla district, 445km northwest of Kathmandu, bombing and setting fire to seven office buildings including a court.
Five rebels and one soldier were killed, police said. Residents said the insurgents carried away 20 to 25 wounded colleagues.
Troops scoured the mountains yesterday for six policemen, four civil servants and four civilians abducted in the raid.
"A hectic search has been launched by the army, both by land and air, to locate the abducted people," a police officer said.
Founded by teacher Prachanda, known as the Fierce One, the Maoists' violent anti-government campaign has claimed over 10,000 lives since 1996.
They draw their inspiration from Chinese revolutionary Mao Zedong's (毛澤東) fight against landowners and their tactics from Peru's Shining Path guerrillas.
They control vast swathes of Nepal's countryside, running parallel district administrations in many areas.
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