april 7, 2006
KATHMANDU: At least 22 people were killed when Maoist guerillas attacked a district town hours before a strike against the monarchy shut down Nepal yesterday.
Roads across the country of 26 million people were deserted as the strike, called by opponents of King Gyanendra, began. Businesses and schools were shut despite the Government's call on people not to heed the strike call.
In the capital, Kathmandu, the centre of the campaign, hundreds of riot police and soldiers, some of them in armoured vehicles, patrolled deserted streets, while activists burnt tyres on roads to enforce the closure.
The leftist rebels struck Malangwa, a town 350 kilometres south-east of Kathmandu, on Wednesday.
They stormed through the town, firing at soldiers guarding government offices and security posts and attacked a local jail and freed more than 100 inmates, among them some of their comrades, before fleeing.
Six policemen, six guerillas and two civilians were killed in the fighting, police said.
An army helicopter carrying troops to the area crashed near Malangwa, killing eight of the 10 soldiers on board, an army officer said. The other two men were missing.
The seven main political parties had called for the strike, defying a government ban on protests. Although the guerillas, who are fighting to establish a communist state, are supporting the political groups as part of a pact against the king, they are not taking part in the protests.
Activists and politicians were detained on the eve of the strike in an effort to scuttle it, and a curfew was imposed to prevent Maoists infiltrating the protests. Sphere: Related Content
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