Protestors defy new Nepal curfew
Protestors defy new Nepal curfew
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Sunday, 23, Apr 2006 10:12
Government officials in Nepal have ordered another daytime curfew in capital Kathmandu to quash anti-royal protests.
But thousands of protestors are marching on the ring road around the barbed wire cordons that separate central Kathmandu from the rest of the city.
Police are trying to enforce the curfew, which has been imposed for 11 hours, and are keeping activists to the fringes of the city. The mobile phone network has been cut off.
Long lines of riot police and soldiers in armoured cars have formed an inner cordon around the central part of the city, where the royal palace stands.
Today's altercation comes after more than 100,000 people defied yesterday's curfew to protest in Kathmandu's centre for the first time.
At least 150 people were injured after riot police used tear gas and rubber bullets to rip through the crowds.
The protests are becoming more violent since they began two weeks ago, resulting in 14 deaths and hundreds of injuries so far.
Demonstrators and opposition leaders have rejected King Gyanendra's offer to return to a multiparty government.
They are demanding the election of an assembly to write a completely new constitution for the country, and want the monarchy to go.