Nepalese political parties urge protest against king

Nepal's top political parties yesterday urged their members to come out of hiding and step up their defiance of the king's emergency rule by holding widespread peaceful rallies.

Political leaders have been unable to mobilize major street protests since Feb. 1 when King Gyandendra seized power, banned public meetings and placed party chiefs under house arrest. However, they managed Tuesday to stage their first rallies since the takeover, sparking hundreds of detentions in cities and towns across Nepal.

The Nepali Congress party, the country's largest, yesterday urged more of its members to come out of hiding, return home from exile abroad and be unafraid to risk arrest while staging anti-government protests, with the first major rally planned for Monday.

"We need to integrate our resources to intensify our movement against the royal government," Nepali Congress's Ram Sharan Mahat said.

Most of the party's leading members who have so far managed to elude arrest are either in hiding in Nepal or have escaped to neighboring India.

Leaders of the Communist Party of Nepal, the second largest party, also were working to intensify their protests.

"From Monday, our protests will take a bigger shape," said Birod Khatiwada, a communist leader.

The king dismissed an interim government in his power grab last month, alleging that political leaders had failed to control the country's communist insurgency, a conflict that has killed more than 10,500 people

The moves provoked an international outcry, with several nations cutting the aid that Nepal needs to fight the rebels and widespread poverty.

The rebels, who say they're inspired by Chinese revolutionary Mao Zedong (毛澤東), have been fighting since 1996 to dislodge the monarchy and establish communist rule in this Himalayan nation.

The army said at least seven rebels were killed in fighting on Wednesday in Nepal's mountainous northeast region.

The army said guns, ammunition and bombs were recovered from the battle site.