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Fresh protests in Nepal despite curfew

ReutersReuters

Apr 9, 2006 — By Y.P. Rajesh and Gopal Sharma

KATHMANDU (Reuters) - Thousands of angry Nepalis tried to storm a state hospital on Sunday, burned government vehicles and clashed with riot police despite a curfew aimed at stopping pro-democracy rallies.

A woman, wounded in police firing in a town south of the capital Kathmandu, died on Sunday, a doctor said.

Three people, including the woman, were wounded at Narayanghat, about 150 km (95 miles) from Kathmandu, when troops fired at protesters demanding King Gyanendra end his rule.

"She died this morning," Bhojraj Adhikary, a doctor at a local hospital, told Reuters by phone.

It was the second death in shooting by government forces on protesters during a four-day anti-monarchy strike across the poor Himalayan kingdom that started on Thursday.

Tension was rising in Narayanghat, witnesses said, adding that a curfew had not stopped people from taking to the streets.

In the western tourist resort town of Pokhara, thousands of people tried to storm a state hospital where the body of a man shot dead by troops on Saturday was taken, witnesses said.

They broke some windows of the building before being chased away by police. The crowd burned some security posts in the area and clashed with riot police who tried to stop them for violating a curfew.

"Thousands of people are out on the streets. There is high tension here," said Keshav Lamichhane, a local journalist.

The army said on Saturday it opened fire in Pokhara in self defense when a mob tried to attack a telephone office.

Nepal's seven main political parties had planned a big rally against the king in Kathmandu on Saturday but tough security meant that only a handful of small protests could be held.

Earlier, the royalist government announced another day-long curfew in the capital on Sunday and mobile phone services remained disrupted in a step seen aimed at scuttling protests.

"NOT AFRAID OF BULLETS"

But hundreds of protesters defied the curfew and demonstrated at several places on the outskirts of Kathmandu, burning tyres on roads, blocking them with rocks and logs, and pelting stones and bricks at riot police.

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