Kathmandu:
Authorities in Nepal have over 100 people as the government investigates the deadly violence that occurred during a protest march organised by the supporters of the former king Gyanendra Shah, seeking the restoration of the constitutional monarchy in the Himalayan country. Parts of Kathmandu on Friday witnessed a tense situation after pro-monarchy protesters pelted stones, attacked the office of a political party, set fire to vehicles and looted shops in the capital.
Two people, including a television cameraman and a protester, were killed in the clashes that injured at least 112 people, authorities said, after police used force to stop the stone-throwing crowd from marching towards the parliament building in the capital Kathmandu. The Army was later called out to control the situation.
Authorities imposed a curfew in parts of the capital at 4.25 pm on Friday, which was lifted from 7 am on Saturday, according to a notice issued by Kathmandu District Administration Office. So far, police have arrested 105 agitators who were involved in burning houses and vandalising vehicles during Friday’s demonstration.
Those arrested included the general secretary of the Rastriya Prajatantra Party, Dhawal Shumsher Rana, and a central member of the party, Rabindra Mishra, among others.
Protest In Nepal
The protesting monarchists were demanding the reinstatement of the monarchy and a Hindu kingdom. The demonstration turned violent after Durga Prasai, the convenor of the agitation, broke the security barricade, riding a bulletproof vehicle, and headed towards Baneshwor, where the Parliament building is located.
Prasai, the key person behind Friday’s violent demonstration, is at large, Superintendent of Police of Kathmandu District Police Range Apil Bohara said.
Police said officers fired rubber bullets and live rounds into the air, after using tear gas and water cannons against the crowds. Some demonstrators pelted stones at police, according to reports.
“A protester has died of a gunshot wound,” police spokesman Dinesh Kumar Acharya told news agency AFP.
Acharya said that a journalist died after protesters set the building he was filming from on fire. During the violent demonstration, 14 buildings were set on fire and nine were vandalised. Nine government vehicles were torched and six private vehicles were vandalised, according to authorities.
According to the police, 53 police personnel, 22 Armed Police Force personnel and 35 protestors were injured in Friday’s incident.
Protesters also attacked the Kantipur Television building and Annapurna Media House in the Tinkune area.
“This is sheer vandalism, arson, looting and anarchy. It cannot be a protest,” cabinet spokesman Prithvi Subba Gurung, the minister of communication and information technology, told news agency Reuters.
Monarchy In Nepal
A specially elected assembly scrapped the 239-year-old monarchy in 2008, under an accord that ended a Maoist insurgency which had killed 17,000 people in 1996-2006 and turned Nepal into a secular, federal republic from a Hindu kingdom.
The last king of the Himalayan nation, 77-year-old Gyanendra, has lived with his family in a private house in Kathmandu as a commoner since being toppled.
In the 16 years since the abolition of the monarchy, Nepal saw the formation of 14 governments. The political instability has stymied economic growth, prompting millions of young people to seek work abroad, mainly in the oil-rich Middle East, South Korea and Malaysia.
Public frustration has been rising over the failure of successive governments to deliver on commitments to develop the economy, which remains reliant on aid and tourism. But the pro-monarchy moment gained momentum after the former king appealed for support in a video message telecast on Democracy Day (February 19).
Following this, the pro-monarchy activists also held a rally on March 9 in support of the former king, who landed at the Tribhuvan International Airport from Pokhara after visiting religious places in different parts of the country.
What People Want
Before violence at the rally, a protester, Mina Subedi, told AFP that “things have only deteriorated” in recent years.
“The country should have developed significantly. People should have had better job opportunities, peace and security and good governance. We should have been corruption-free,” the 55-year-old said.
Opposition parties had meanwhile marshalled thousands more people at a counter-demonstration elsewhere in the capital to “safeguard the republican system”.
“Nepalis will not return to the past,” said Pushpa Kamal Dahal ‘Prachanda’, a former guerrilla chief who led the decade-long Maoist insurgency before entering politics and has since served as prime minister three times.
“Maybe they have dared to raise their heads because us republic supporters have not been able to deliver as per the wishes and wants of the people.”
‘Prachanda’ also demanded the arrest of the abdicated, saying he was behind the violence that killed two. “It has become crystal clear that Gyanendra Shah (the last reigning King of Nepal) is behind all these acts. Gyanendra Shah’s intent is culpable. It is time for the government to take strict action. Investigation should be conducted to bring the criminals to justice, and Gyanendra Shah cannot be spared- given absolute freedom, it is unacceptable for the Nepali citizens, and the government should be serious about this issue,” the former PM said.
Meanwhile, Gyanendra Shah, 77, had largely refrained from commenting on Nepal’s fractious politics, but recently made several public appearances with supporters.
Shah was crowned in 2001 after his elder brother, King Birendra Bir Bikram Shah, and his family were killed in a palace massacre that wiped out most of the royal family. His coronation took place as the Maoist insurgency was raging in far-flung corners of Nepal.
Shah suspended the constitution and dissolved parliament in 2005, triggering a democratic uprising in which the Maoists sided with Nepal’s political establishment to orchestrate huge street protests. That eventually precipitated the end of the conflict, with parliament voting in 2008 to abolish Nepal’s Hindu monarchy. Nepal is home to eight of the world’s 14 highest peaks, including Mount Everest.