The Joint People’s Movement Coordination Committee of the seven-party alliance appealed to the people to support the general strike scheduled for April 6-9 to make the protest programme a success.
A joint statement issued by the seven political parties on Thursday said that a peaceful and intensified mass movement was the only option for restoration of complete democracy in the country.
The alliance however assured that the agitation would be peaceful and appealed to the international community to extend their solidarity with the movement for democracy.
Thursday’s meeting of the committee appealed to people of all walks of life to take to the streets from April 6 to 9.
“The King is making merry while people are being killed. The King wants war while the people want peace,” the appeal said, calling on the people to free the nation from the autocratic rule.
The parties have also urged the public to bear with any inconvenience brought about by the general strike and demonstrations, “which is a necessity for the establishment of sustainable peace in the country.”
Challenging a possible government crackdown on the demonstrations, the alliance called on academics, teachers, students, businessmen, civil servants, farmers, lawyers and industrialists to take to the streets.
Referring to the possible action of the government against civil servants taking part in the agitation of the seven political parties, the alliance vowed that the government to be formed after the movement would reinstate government employees dismissed by the ‘autocratic regime’ for taking part in the agitation.
The alliance of seven political parties protesting against the royal takeover of last year is organizing the general strike for restoration of complete democracy in the country.
Referring to the second round of memorandum between the Maoists and the political parties, the government has cautioned people not to take part in such protest programmes saying Maoists would infiltrate in it.
Nepal Telecom and India’s Reliance Infocomm have signed on a preliminary agreement to share fixed-line networks, according to reports.
Nepal relies on satellite links for global connectivity now, but would prefer to get it through access to Reliance’s under-sea cable line operator FLAG Telecom, Reuters news agency quoted Managing Director of the state-owned Nepal Telecom Company (NTC), Sugat Ratnma Kansakar, as saying.
“We will be linked from the India border to Mumbai where we will use Reliance’s FLAG Telecom network,” said Kansakar, who was in Mumbai to sign the preliminary agreement.
Work on the project is expected to start in the next few months.
An optical fibre cable link would be built from Jogbani in Bihar to Kathmandu, the news report said quoting sources.
The alliance aims to meet future demand for voice, data and video traffic between the two countries, and it could eventually prove to be an important link between India and China for Reliance, the source said.
Reliance Infocomm, which is part of Reliance Communications Ventures Ltd, had struck a connectivity deal with China Telecom in December.
Nepal Telecom is already building a network from Kathmandu to the China border, which will be completed in about a year, and talks are on with Reliance Infocomm and China Telecom to lay an optic fibre cable network into China, Kansakar said.
“We are in the preliminary stages of discussion with China Telecom on this,” he said, adding that an agreement was expected in the next two months.
“Through China we expect to go to Russia and other places.”
Nepal opened its first telecoms “superhighway” in January to improve line quality and increase phone usage in the country, where only about 3 in 100 people have one.
Apart from its fixed-line assets, Reliance Infocomm has a mobile subscriber base of more than 17 million, the news report said.
Over half a dozen students appearing in the SLC examination were injured when a bomb planted by suspected Maoists went off outside an exam centre in Narayan Municipality-9, Dailekh district, Friday morning.
Reports quoting police officials said the blast that occurred at around 8:00 a.m. outside the exam centre at Saraswoti Secondary School injured at least six students while half a dozen others fainted due to the blast.
SLC exam was underway at the school when the blast occurred.
Students rushed out of the exam centre immediately after the explosion, leaving their exam papers, reports added. 204 students were appearing in the exams. Today’s exam was cancelled after the incident.
The injured students have been undergoing treatment at a local hospital.
The Maoists are yet to own responsibility for the blast.
Nepalese residing in New Zealand have formed a Non-Resident Nepali (NRN) Association under the chairmanship of Babu Raja Maharjan.
A press statement said the association was formed with the objective of developing relationship with Nepalese residing across the world to invest in Nepal to improve the economic situation of the country.
The Association also demanded to make the provision of dual citizenship to create conducive environment for Non Resident Nepalese to be actively involved in the development process of Nepal.
Chairman of Rastriya Prajatantra Party Pashupati Shumshere JB Rana has said that the King should initiate the process of dialogue with the constitutional forces to solve the political crisis the country is facing.
Addressing party cadres before a motorcycle rally organized by the party, Rana said that the RPP is in favour of consensus among all constitutional forces of the country to resolve the present political stalemate.
“Formation of an all party government on the basis of democratic principle is a must to find a peaceful resolution of the Maoist insurgency through negotiated settlement,” Rana added.
He also urged the government to roll back the decision of price hike in petroleum products. He further said that the party will announce further programmes to reach to the people.
Speaking at the same programme, senior RPP leader Jog Mehar Shrestha said the government is trying to suppress people through gunpoint rather than finding solutions of the problems.
Starting from Baneshwore, the motorcycle rally passed through major thoroughfares of the city before concluding at Lainchour.
Nepal and India renewed the Nepal-India Transit Treaty for the next seven years on Friday.
In a press statement, the Ministry of Industries, Commerce and Supplies said the transit treaty has been renewed for another seven years with effect from January 6, 2006.
Accordingly, the Nepal government agreed to permit India to use Nepali land if the latter required it for transporting goods from one part of India to another. The previous transit provisions would allow only Nepal to use the Indian soil for transportation of goods from one part of Nepal to another.
The two governments also agreed to maintain the existing 15 transit points as they are. There were speculations that the Indian government had demanded for reduction of the number of transit points.
According to the new agreement, Nepal has agreed to transport sensitive goods only through certain transit points. Transportation of the goods with the tag ‘sensitive’ by India would only be through seven transit points namely Kakarvitta, Biratnagar, Birgunj, Bhairahawa, Nepalgunj, Mahendra Nagar and Birgunj Dry Port connecting Kolkata, in the Indian state of West Bengal.
Other normal goods can be transported through any of the 15 transit points. India had left it to Nepal to name the transit points for the transportation of sensitive goods.
The agreement has made no changes in the provision regarding the transit highway being used by Nepal to connect Bangladesh. Nepal will continue to use the Phulbari and Radhikapur transit highways, connecting Bangladesh and Kakarvitta in the eastern border of Nepal, for trade with Bangladesh and other third countries.
The treaty was renewed after secretary at the Ministry of Industries, Commerce and Supplies, Bharat Bahadur Thapa, of Nepal and commerce secretary of the Government of India, N. N. Menon, exchanged the letters for the renewal of the treaty on Thursday. The treaty had expired on January 6 after which the two governments agreed to extend it for the next three months .
A National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) team left for Sindhupalchowk district on Friday to investigate the incident of aerial bombing by the Royal Nepalese Army in Thokarpa area of the district and civilian casualties in the incident.
A press statement issued by the NHRC on Friday said the NHRC team, comprising officers, will go to the incident site after receiving information about the incident in Chautara, the district headquarter of the district.
The RNA launched the aerial raid in the area on Monday following information that Maoists had assembled at Baghbhairab Higher Secondary School in Thokarpa for a mass meeting.
Meanwhile, the NHRC also appealed to the Maoists for immediate and unconditional release of police inspector Raj Kumar Kheuju, head constable Megh Nath Ghimire and Shyam Krishna Khatiwada and Kedar Pudasaini of Hetauda-9, who were abducted by the Maoists from Biruwapur area of Parsa district on Thursday.
The Children as Zones of Peace (CZOP) National Coalition, an alliance of child rights activists, has expressed strong condemnation over the bomb blast carried out by the Maoists at a SLC exam centre in Jhupresal-9 area of Dailekh district.
Issuing a press statement immediately after the blast outside Saraswoti Secondary School in Jhopresal when SLC exams was underway Friday morning, the CZOP said the act of the rebels was against the Geneva Convention and the international declaration of child rights.
“This is also against the spirit of the understanding signed by the Maoists with the seven political parties,” the statement said, adding that such activities in school areas will not only affect the SLC exams but also jeopardize the future of the students.
At least six students were injured in the blast that took place outside the exam centre at around 8:00 a.m. The exams were cancelled following the incident.
The CZOP also urged the CPN (Maoist) to own responsibility for the blast, take action against those involved in it and express commitment, publicly, not to repeat such activities.
Home Minister Kamal Thapa has said security personnel have arrested five Maoist commandos in the capital recently.
Addressing a press conference at the Home Ministry on Friday, Minister Thapa said all of them were members of the Maoist Special Task Force (STF).
According to officials, those arrested include Narayan GC alias Nirmal, Ram Prasad Sapkota alias Dip Shikha, Iswor Sapkota alias Suman, Sajan Kuwor alias Madhav and Badri Parajuli alias Bidroha.
Minister Thapa said more rebels had also been arrested and that investigation was underway. He alleged that the STF commandos had entered the capital to infiltrate into the opposition strike and rallies scheduled early next month. He said the government would take measures to control the four-day protests announced by the seven party opposition alliance beginning next week (April 6).
The opposition parties have announced four-day general strike and rally (April 6-9) against the year-old direct rule of the king. They have refuted allegations that the rebels are likely to infiltrate into their protest programmes.
The government had imposed a day-long curfew in January this year on the day the opposition alliance had planned a massive rally.
Home Minister Thapa, however, did not say if the government would resort to similar measures to foil the opposition strike.
Leaders of the seven party alliance (SPA) met with office bearers of the Confederation of Nepalese Industries (CNI) at the latter’s office in Kathmandu on Friday.
According to CNI, during the meet the opposition leaders urged the CNI to support their peaceful agitation beginning next week calling for restoration of peace and democracy in the country. The opposition leaders said business and economy could thrive only in peace and that peace could be restored only after the restoration of democracy.
In response to the request by the opposition parties, the CNI office bearers said they were committed to constitutional monarchy and multi-party democracy in the country. They said the business community was ready to work in a concerted way for the restoration of peace in the country. They also urged the opposition parties not to resort to protest programmes like nationwide shutdown strikes that have adverse impact on the country’s economy.
CPN (UML) leader, Bharat Mohan Adhikary, Nepali Congress leaders Chakra Bastola and Dr Ram Sharan Mahat, NC (Democratic) leader Dip Kumar Upadhyay, among others, took part in the meeting on behalf of the alliance. Similarly, CNI president Binod Kumar Chaudhary, vice president Rajendra Kumar Khetan, CNI officer bearers Hulas Chandra Golchha and Tek Chandra Pokhrel, among others, took part in the meeting.
Earlier, the opposition leaders had also held meeting with the Federation of Nepalese Chambers of Commerce and Industries (FNCCI) and sought their cooperation in the forthcoming agitation programmes.