Nepal groups plan big protests despite tight vigil

KATHMANDU (Reuters) - Opponents of Nepal King Gyanendra vowed to come out in vast numbers on Friday to pressure him to give up absolute power as riot police gathered to thwart them on the second day of a four-day nationwide general strike.

The strike has been called by the Himalayan kingdom's seven main political parties in what they hope will be a definitive campaign against the monarch, who sacked the government and grabbed control of the nation last year.

While the first day of the strike completely shut down the country of 26 million people, tight security prevented large public protests.

Activists managed to hold only a handful of demonstrations on Thursday, the largest consisting a few hundred people, as they took to the streets and hurled stones at riot police before being teargassed and dispersed or detained.

"Our protests will be intensified on Friday," said Shobhakhar Parajuli, a top official of the biggest political party, Nepali Congress.

"There will be massive demonstrations on Saturday. This movement will not stop until the people's rights are restored," he told Reuters.

ARMY DEATH TOLL RISES

The latest pro-democracy campaign is backed by Nepal's Maoist insurgents, who have been waging a bloody battle since 1996 to topple the monarchy and establish communist rule.

But the rebels are not taking part in the protests and have announced an indefinite ceasefire in the Kathmandu region to help the political demonstrations.

The royalist government, however, says it does not trust the guerrillas and has thrown a security blanket over the hill-ringed capital of 1.5 million people, including stationing armoured vehicles on some main streets.

The Maoist revolt has killed more than 13,000 people, wrecked the economy of one of the 10 poorest countries in the world and forced thousands of people to flee the fighting in the countryside, largely controlled by the rebels.

Authorities said the death toll in Wednesday night's Maoist raid on Malangwa, a district town 350 km (220 miles) southeast of Kathmandu, rose to 24 after they found the bodies of two soldiers missing after their helicopter crashed.

The Maoists, making their first such claim, said rebels had shot down the helicopter but the army said the cause was being investigated.

Amnesty International urged the royalist government to release political detainees.

"Targeting leaders of the peaceful political opposition is not only wrong, it is dangerous," Purna Sen, the group's Asia-Pacific director, said in a statement.