Maoist strike paralyses Nepal towns
KATHMANDU: A general strike called by Maoist rebels to disrupt
controversial elections this week brought towns across Nepal to a
standstill, witnesses said.
In the capital Kathmandu, many traders opened their stores in the
morning but later downed shutters, as streets began emptying of
vehicular traffic. Soldiers and army personnel launched foot and vehicle
patrols.
Police said Kathmandu had been quiet Sunday.
"There have not been any reports of violence in the valley so far.
Everything is quiet and normal," said an officer from police
headquarters, speaking on condition of anonymity.
In Nepalgunj, 510 kilometres (320 miles) west of Kathmandu, the
strike brought activities to a standstill, a local journalist said,
speaking by telephone from the gateway town to the Maoist dominated
mid-western region. "Normal life has been severely disrupted. Only
vehicles belonging to security forces are on the streets," said Janak
Nepal from the town of around 150,000 people close to the Indian border.
The rebels who want to depose King Gyanendra and turn the
poverty-stricken Himalayan nation into a communist state called the
week-long strike to disrupt Wednesday's scheduled local elections.
Nepal's foreign minister rejected international criticism of a recent
crackdown at a press conference Sunday night, and called on political
parties to join the elections.
The minister defended a recent crackdown that resulted in the
detention of hundreds of political activists.
"What we have been doing here in our country is nothing new and far
from accepted norms and practices that should provoke the hue and cry
that we are witnessing these days," Ramesh Nath Pandey said.
Despite recent criticism from India, the United States, Japan, the
European Union and Britain, Nepal's was not facing international
isolation, the minister said. "It is true that some countries are
aspiring undesirably to influence the internal affairs of Nepal after
certain forces within the country have surrendered themselves to the
mercy of foreign powers, seeking blessing to restore their ailing
political privileges," Pandey said. Kathmandu ,Monday (AFP) |