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Nepal remains locked down after riots
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~~article_author~~ The Associated Press
Friday, September 03, 2004
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KATMANDU, Nepal
A shoot-on-sight curfew imposed to prevent riots and violent protests over the killing of 12 Nepalese workers in Iraq was imposed Friday for the third day, while officials said they were trying to recover the bodies of the slain hostages.
Tourists trickling into Katmandu were driven to their hotels in buses with armed escorts, and soldiers kept watch as city workers swept broken glass, burned tires and pieces of broken furniture from the debris-littered streets.
Friday prayers were canceled at the Jame mosque, the city's only Muslim house of worship. It was ransacked after a mob received word Wednesday that the Nepalese hostages had been killed.
Information Minister Mohammed Mohsin said the government was "using appropriate channels to bring back the bodies" of the Nepalese, who disappeared soon after entering Iraq from Jordan as truck drivers on Aug. 19.
A video posted on a Web site Tuesday showed militants slitting the neck of one Nepalese worker and shooting the 11 others. That set off riots in Nepalese cities that killed two people.
The curfew in Katmandu was briefly lifted Friday so that people could stock up on food and other supplies. Large crowds gathered on street corners to buy newspapers and meet friends and relatives. Most outbound domestic flights were canceled. Pakistan International Airlines, Qatar Airways, Jet Airlines of India, Gulf Airways and Biman Airlines of Bangladesh canceled international flights.
Nepal, which has no troops in Iraq, has long banned its citizens from working there because of security concerns. But Nepal is a poor nation and many Nepalese take jobs abroad, including 17,000 who are believed to have slipped into Iraq. Many are working as armed security guards for foreign contractors.
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