The state-owned Nepal Telecom (NT) has suspended operation of recently launched Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA)-based telephone service citing security reasons.

The NT officials said that the service had been stopped in view of the security situation in the country on the day of municipal elections.

They said that the service might be resumed from Thursday.

NT said it has already distributed 1,000 lines of telephones over the last four days. The company plans to distribute over one million wireless local lines across the country.

The Supreme Court had allowed NT to install the CDMA system to distribute telephone service based on Wireless Local Loop (WLL) technology on January 23.

According to NT, around 250,000 phone lines will be made available in Kathmandu, Narayani zone, Janakpur, Biratnagar, Bhairahawa, Pokhara and Dhangadhi in the first phase. Around 50,000 lines will be available in the capital alone.

The CDMA telephone service is based on the latest wireless technology. Besides, the technology is expected to make telephone network expansion cost effective and time saving, according to officials.

Reports from the eastern town of Biratnagar say police have taken into custody a total of 137 activists affiliated to the seven party opposition alliance on Wednesday on charge of trying to disrupt municipal polls.

Those arrested include Nepali Congress central committee member and former minister Mahesh Acharya.

Security personnel had resorted to blank fire and used force when opposition activists entered into a polling center at Janapath tole and tore down ballot papers.

There has been very low turn out of voters in Biratnagar.

In terai towns of Birgunj, Gaur, Manalgawa and Jaleswore, voters turn out has been reported to be more than 40 percent.

In far-western towns, the turn out, however, has been quite low. According to preliminary reports, less than 1 percent of 50,000 eligible voters cast their ballot in Mahendranagar. In Tikapur, the turn out was one of the lowest in the country.

Meanwhile, reports said security personnel opened fire at a peaceful demonstration being carried out by the seven party opposition alliance at Ghorahi in Dang.

The CPN (UML) said its activist, Umesh Thapa, was killed and an NC activist, Krishna Giri, was injured during the firing.

Details were not immediately available. Security sources said they were still awaiting for details.

Telephone lines are down in Dang right from this morning.

Maoists withdrew the seven day long bandh (general strike) with effect from Thursday, after four days of the bandh.

A press statement issued by the Maoists on Wednesday said they withdrew the bandh respecting the requests of seven political parties, different organizations and people of different walks of life.

Maoists announced week long bandh from Sunday to disrupt the municipal poll.

Maoists have described the municipal poll as total failure.

Maoists also expressed gratitude to all people who had contributed for the success of the bandh.

Maoists appealed the seven political parties, civil societies and intellectuals to initiate dialogue for finding out the outlet of the present crisis through the election of the constituent assembly.

The statement further said that they will announce future programmes along with the process of dialogue.

The bandh has been facing widespread criticism from all walks of life.

Voting for 618 municipal seats in 36 municipalities in 28 districts around the country ended on Wednesday evening amidst reports of violence and protests by seven agitating political parties.

Reports from various districts depicted minimal turnout but the Election Commission (EC) said encouraging number of voters went to polling booths despite the difficult situation.

According to the EC, around 45,000 out of the total 300,993 voters cast their votes in Kathmandu Metropolitan city while 17,844 people (around 20 percent) cast votes in Lalitpur Sub-metropolitan City while 9000 votes (over 30 percent) were cast in Kirtipur Municipality.

Likewise, 30,262 voters cast their votes in Biratnagar Sub-metropolitan City, 21,634 in Birgunj Sub-metropolitan City and 9,288 (over 49 percent) voters cast their votes in Siraha Municipality, according to the EC.

Similarly, 5,737 voters cast the ballots in Malangawa Municipality, 4,700 in Kamalamai and 4,952 votes (33 percent) were cast in Siddhartanagar Municipality.

Turnout in Pokhara Sub-metropolitan City, Lekhnath Municipality, Hetauda, Mechinagar and Dhangadhi and Dhankuta municipalities was very low, according to reports.

The voting began at 8:00 a.m. and closed at 5:00 p.m.

There are over 4,000 seats in 58 municipalities in the country. All candidates filing their nominations in 22 municipalities were declared elected unopposed earlier. 1,040 polling booths were set up, mostly in schools, for the voting.

“The voting completed in a good atmosphere and the government made proper arrangement of security during the polls. Encouraging number of voters went to cast their votes despite various rumours,” Chief Election Commissioner Keshab Raj Rajbhandari told the state-owned Radio Nepal.

EC spokesperson Tejmuni Bajracharya told Nepalnews after the completion of voting, the counting would begin from Thursday morning and the results are expected to come by Thursday evening.

Meanwhile, a meeting of the seven political parties held on Wednesday declared the municipal elections a “total failure”. The parties said the elections conducted amidst heavy clampdown on democratic political parties, human rights workers and the civil society activists was a mockery of democracy.

Normal life in the capital has been affected on Tuesday as well, the third day of the seven day long Nepal bandh (general strike) called by the Maoists to disrupt the municipal polls.

Like in the first and second day of bandhs, shops in interior parts of the city are open; shops in major thoroughfares remained closed. Most of the public and private vehicles kept off the roads but two wheelers and mini-vans could be seen plying around the streets.

More vehicles were seen plying than on previous days as heavy security arrangements have been made to thwart the bandh.

The numbers of private taxis plying in the streets are less in the third day of bandh after Maoists shot dead a taxi driver Jitendra Shrestha in Kathmandu on Monday.

The second day of bandh affected normal life partially across the country on Monday.

In the capital of Monday, normal life was partially crippled with more vehicles plying on the roads and more shops opening. A sizeable number of tempos, micro-buses, taxis and minibuses were seen plying to provide service to commuters. However such vehicles were charging more money to the passengers.

A report from Pokhara said the effort of security authorities to get shops to open there failed on Monday as well.

Gandaki Zonal Administrator Kumar Bahadur Karki and Chief District Officer, Madhav Raj Regmi gave directions to the entrepreneurs to open shops. However shops remained closed.

In Narayangarh, some shops, academic institutions, business houses and factories remained closed on Monday as well.

Vehicular movement in Hetauda-Pathlaiya road section came to a complete halt due to the road blocks and bombs planted by Maoists at a bridge on the border between Bara and Makawanpur. Security forces diffuse bomb at around 3 p.m.

Similarly, reports from eastern development region said normal life remained crippled in most of the districts of the eastern region. The town of Biratnagar opened for some hours after zonal administrator Jagadish Khadka and other security officials requested shopkeepers to open their shops.

Normal life was also paralysed in Dhading, Tanahun, Rajbiraj, Nawalparasi, Mahottari, Janakpur and Syangja.

In Mahendranagar, security forces placed seals on the shops that remained shut on Monday.

The Maoists have called a week long Nepal bandh from Sunday in a bid to disrupt the municipal polls slated for Wednesday, despite heavy criticism from all walks of life.

Japan favours “review” of its overall political policy towards Nepal based on the current situation with special reference to last week’s royal statement reiterating the roadmap first made public on February 1, 2005, reports said.

The Himalayan Times daily quoted director of southwest division in the Japanese foreign office, Shinsuke Shimizu as saying that Tokyo had taken a very strong exception to the royal government’s crackdown on the mainline political leaders and other activists, especially their continued incarceration on grounds of perfectly legitimate “democratic dissent” and demand for restoration of democracy.

“Japan is firmly opposed to application of violence to settle what essentially is a political dispute,” he said, reaffirming Japanese conviction that since there was no military solution to the ongoing insurgency in Nepal.

“The monarch and the political parties should bury their hatchet and agree on an effective strategy to resolve the crisis.”

Shimizu held talks with foreign minister Ramesh Nath Pandey and senior leaders of Nepali Congress, CPN-UML and Nepali Congress (Democratic).

Japan is among the countries that considers political development of the Nepal as a internal affairs of the country.

Save Independent Radio Movement (SIRM) asked the government to pay compensation to Pashimanchal FM, which was damaged during the clash between security forces and the Maoists in Tansen of Palpa on January 31.

Speaking at a programme organized to publicize a field report on the incident, Bishnu Hari Dhakal, one of the members of the probe committee said, “Since the FM station was attacked after security personnel illegally entered and used it as cover, the government should immediately compensate the station and help it resume operation.”

The attack has left glass screen on the windows and various radio equipment partially damaged.

At least 11 security personnel and eight Maoists were killed during a fierce gun battle between security personnel and Maoists.

A policeman and a Maoist were killed in separate incidents across the country on Monday, the second day of the week long Nepal Bandh (general strike) called by the Maoists.

An Armed Police Force (APF) personal Devraj Kathait, was killed while four others were injured after a bomb planted by Maoists went off while they were removing booby traps near a bridge at Daiji village along the Mahendranagar-Dhangadhi road section in Mahendranagar, Monday morning.

The injured have been airlifted to Nepalgunj for treatment.

Security forces and Maoists clashed in Panauti in Kavre from Monday evening. The rebels targeted RNA base camp at Gorakhnath hilltop.

The damaged Municipality building in Panauti after the

The Maoists also attacked the Panauti Municipality office. Though the Maoists have reportedly taken into their control some security personnel deployed in the municipality office, there was no official confirmation. Locals said the Maoists, after attacking Panauti, headed towards Dhunkharka in three buses at 11:00 p.m.

Maoists also detonated a bomb in the district education office in Dhulkihel Monday night. A two-year-old son of a peon in the office was injured in the blast.

In Nepalgunj, three Royal Nepalese Army (RNA) soldiers were injured when Maoists ambushed a patrolling security convoy near Parbatipur in Nepalgunj, on Monday evening.

All the injured were rushed to Bheri Zonal Hospital, security sources said.

Reports from Udayapur said Maoists and security forces engaged in clashes in the district headquarters Gaighat, which began after the rebels targeted an RNA camp in Bokse area at around 8.30 p m on Monday. According to sources, half-a-dozen security men were injured in the attack.

Meanwhile, Maoists detonated a powerful bomb at a school in Mangalsen, the district headquarter of Accham district. The school was damaged in the incident.

Save Independent Radio Movement (SIRM) asked the government to pay compensation to Pashimanchal FM, which was damaged during the clash between security forces and the Maoists in Tansen of Palpa on January 31.

Speaking at a programme organized to publicize a field report on the incident, Bishnu Hari Dhakal, one of the members of the probe committee said, “Since the FM station was attacked after security personnel illegally entered and used it as cover, the government should immediately compensate the station and help it resume operation.”

The attack has left glass screen on the windows and various radio equipment partially damaged.

At least 11 security personnel and eight Maoists were killed during a fierce gun battle between security personnel and Maoists.

Freedom Forum has said it was concerned over the detention of arrested protestors and political leaders in security posts where Maoists rebels have threatened to attack.

In a press release, the forum said that at least 15 protestors, including political leaders, students, leaders of professional groups and trade unions have been kept in security posts in Kushma, Beni and Baglung where the rebels have threatened to attack.

The group has asked the government to transfer them to a secure place and treat them in a humanitarian manner.

The government has arrested a large number of political leaders, students, professors, teachers and trade union leaders for demonstrating against the municipal elections and detained in different security camps. Human rights groups in Kathmandu have complained that the detainees have not been treated well in detention centers.