Police fired on pro-democracy protesters yesterday in Kathmandu and the resort town of Pokhara, leaving at least 14 people injured, a human-rights activist said. It was not clear if the police fired rubber bullets or live ammunition.
The clash in the Nepali capital occurred in the Gangabu neighborhood, when protesters marched toward a line of police from an area not covered by the city's strict curfew rules. When the protesters didn't retreat, the police opened fire, said Poshraj Adhikari, of the rights group INSEC-Nepal.
Jagat Basnet, a local resident, said on the telephone that police had fired several rounds at the protesters.
"I saw one running man get hit and collapse," Basnet said.
Adhikari said the army was beginning to move into the area to take control of the situation.
The royal government responded to the continuing protests yesterday by imposing a daytime curfew in Kathmandu, and two other towns which have been at the center of the rallies.
The government also announced it would launch a search of houses across Kathmandu in search of terrorists who they say have infiltrated the pro-democracy protests.
"The security forces are searching for these terrorist for which there will be a massive search of private homes," a Home Ministry statement said, urging residents to cooperate.
The US State Department, meanwhile, called on King Gyanendra to restore democracy, declaring that 15 months of direct palace rule "has failed in every regard."
"The demonstrations, death, arrests and Maoist attacks in the past few days have shown there is more insecurity, not less," State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said in Washington on Monday.
In Pokhara, about 200km west of Kathmandu, some 10,000 people were marching through the center of the town when some began throwing stones at police, who responded first with tear gas and rubber bullets and then with live gunfire when the protests refused to disperse, according to a town official who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the press.
The king has been vacationing in Pokhara, a resort town popular with foreign tourists, for the past few weeks, even as the protests have spread from Nepal's major cities to its far-flung towns.
There have been daily protests and clashes with security forces throughout the country since last Thursday, when the seven major opposition parties called a general strike. Security forces have killed three protesters and put more than 1,000 in jail since then.
The parties are demanding the king relinquish the power he seized last year. The strike has continued into this week, shutting down roads, schools, and stores in most parts of the country.
Yesterday morning, many of Kathmandu's 1.5 million people scrambled during a short window in the curfew to get food and other supplies. The current curfew ordered everyone off the streets from noon to 5pm, and again from 10pm to 4am.
"My son and daughter and their children, we are all stuck in our house," said Priya Ranjit, a 58-year-old woman buying rice and other food in Kathmandu.
All told, she said nine people were cooped up inside her home.
"This can't go on, we need to go to work for our money," she said, adding that her husband drove a taxi that had been kept off the roads by the strike and curfew.
"The little children want to play," she said.
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