Curfew and violence fail to keep Nepalese protesters down
A ban on protests and a strictly enforced curfew failed to prevent tens of thousands from coming out onto the streets on Thursday and clashing with police in at least a dozen places around Nepal's capital.
Three people were shot dead and scores injured.
For all latest news, follow The Daily Star's Google News channel. Nepal has gone into a third week of crippling anti-royal protests and strikes. The number killed in the wave of nationwide protests has hit double digits.
King Gyanendra is facing a spiralling crisis in the Himalayan kingdom since he sacked the government in February 2005 and seized direct control.
The much-criticised move was needed, he said, because political parties were corrupt, had failed to hold elections and had not stemmed a decade-long Maoist insurgency that has claimed at least 12,500 lives.
The ring road encircling the capital was blocked by protesters at regular intervals Thursday. They burned tyres and put up makeshift barricades as hundreds of police in vehicles tried to keep a lid on the massive civil unrest.
During previous curfews, diplomats, journalists, human rights groups and emergency vehicles could all obtain curfew passes, but not this time.
Many journalists who tried to go out on the streets were picked up by police officers and returned to their hotels.
Hundreds of machine-gun toting soldiers and armed riot police patrolled the deserted city centre streets.
Other journalists hid from police, walked kilometres on back roads and dodged through the lanes chased by police wielding bamboo sticks.
Hari was shot by a police shotgun with rubber-coated pellets last Tuesday, but did not think twice about coming onto the streets again.
"The king is not thinking about the people. He is dominating people with power, with tear gas and bullets," Hari said.
He lives in Gonganbu, on the northern rim of Kathmandu, but runs a shop selling shawls and scarves in Kathmandu's tourist magnet Thamel.
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