Nepal's government clamped a curfew on the streets of Kathmandu after mobs ransacked a mosque and an Arab airlines office in protest at the killing of 12 Nepalese hostages in Iraq. Before setting fire to the Jama Masjid mosque, the capital's largest Muslim shrine, protesters created a sidewalk bonfire out of furniture and electrical equipment pulled from the building. Riot police used batons to control the angry protestors and managed to push them back outside the sensitive central area which also contains the Narayanhity Royal Palace, police said. Estimating the crowd at 5,000, a police officer said the area had been sealed off and police were trying to disperse the crowd. The mosque suffered only minor damage, but many of its contents were destroyed.
Protests erupted in the capital Kathmandu late Tuesday after news the 12, who left the impoverished nation in search of jobs, were slain by militants who abducted them about 10 days ago, accusing them of cooperating with US forces.
On Wednesday, the mob, made up mainly of youths, grew in size after early morning attacks on more than a dozen private employment agencies that they blamed for sending the 12 Nepalese jobseekers to Iraq.
They broke windows and set fire to vehicles, furniture, motorcycles and electrical equipment belonging to the agencies, police said.
"There are some people who turned violent and started attacking employment offices in Kathmandu," Home Minister Purna Bahadur Khadka said. "We are trying to avert any serious violence in the capital and outside."
An employee at Qatar Airways, one of the main airlines used by Nepalese seeking jobs in the Middle East, said dozens of angry people stormed onto their premises and smashed furniture before setting the building on fire.
Spontaneous protest strikes were called in the towns of Pokhara, Gorkha and Biratnagar with youths taking to the streets to stop vehicles.
A statement announcing the killings was posted on an Islamist website by an Al-Qaeda-linked group called the Army of Ansar al-Sunna and accompanied by pictures and video footage of the killings.
The photos showed the grisly beheading of a blindfolded hostage, including one where his bloodied head was held up like a trophy by a hooded captor. The graphic video showed the other Nepalese being shot. It was the largest single massacre of hostages in Iraq since the start of the US-led war there.
Nepal, which is not part of the US-led coalition in Iraq, said the killings marked a "moment of national despair."
"This barbarian act of terrorism to kill innocent civilians without asking for any conditions for their release is against the minimum behaviour of human civilisation," the government said following an emergency cabinet meeting.
"His Majesty's Government urges the international community to take stringent action against the perpetrators of this atrocity," the government statement said.
Nepal is the world's only Hindu kingdom, with 86.2 percent of its 27 million population adhering to Hinduism, 7.8 percent to Buddhism with Muslims accounting for 3.8 percent and other smaller religions the other 2.2 percent.
In Lele, 20 kilometres (12 miles) south of Kathmandu, hundreds of tearful villagers crowded around the humble home of 19-year-old Ramesh Khadka, who was among those murdered by the Islamic insurgents.
"We were expecting their safe return. This is very shocking. This is completely unexpected," said Sudarshan Khadka, Ramesh Khadka's brother.
"My brother went there just to earn a living. He had nothing to do with the Americans. We are helpless against fanatics," the 23-year-old told AFP.
The United States and United Nations strongly condemned the killings.
"We condemn these barbaric acts in the strongest possible terms," State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said.
UN Secretary General Kofi Annan said he was appalled and called for the release of all hostages held in Iraq. |