The district administration of Morang has imposed overnight curfew in the eastern town of Biratnagar from Monday- probably for the first time in the last five decades.

Chief District Officer of Morang, Narendra Dahal, said the curfew had been imposed to maintain security in the district. He did not elaborate.

The sudden imposition of curfew in the second biggest city in the country, which is also an industrial town, will hamper industries that operate overnight, reports said.

Similarly, local authorities have also imposed curfew in eastern districts of Jhapa, Sunsari, Siraha and Saptari, according to reports.

These are the districts through which the East-West highway passes.

The government has imposed a ban on public gatherings in the areas within the Ring Road with effect from January 17 to check Maoist infiltration in the protest programmes.

Issuing a press statement on Monday, the Home Ministry has appealed to the seven agitating political parties to call off their mass meeting in the capital slated for January 20 saying there might be infiltration of Maoists in the mass meeting.

The Ministry also asked the agitating political parties to come to the negotiation tableto find an outlet to the present crisis.

The Ministry has also urged people to refrain from participating in such mass meetings.

The Ministry also said that security has been beefed up in the capital to check any untoward incidents and urged people to cooperate with the security check ups.

The District Administration Offices of Kathmandu and Lalitpur districts have also imposed curfew from 11:00 p.m. to 4:00 a.m. with effect from Monday until further notice.

The alliance of seven opposition political parties are holding mass meeting in the capital on January 20 as part of their protest against the municipal polls slated for February 8.

Leaders of the alliance however said that they will hold the mass meeting at any cost despite the government’s prohibition.

Home Minister Kamal Thapa (File Photo)

Home Minister Kamal Thapa (File Photo)
Three days after Home Minister Kamal Thapa’s claimed the Rastriya Prajatanta Party, after ousting party chairman Pashupati Shumshere JB Rana, the Election Commission (EC) Saturday asked both rival factions of the RPP to furnish evidence to substantiate their respective claims.

In letters sent to both factions, the EC said it has received Thapa’s claim over the party, raising controversy over who is its genuine leader.

Rana supporters said they are preparing documents including the party statute and the list of signatories who demanded a general convention about eight months ago and later withdrew the demand.

The government faction led by Kamal Thapa is preparing the latest signatures of general convention members. According to a source at the Thapa faction, it has submitted the amendment to the statute effected by the recent ‘ special general convention’, which the Rana faction said was a crowd of fake members.

The RPP faction led by Home Minister Thapa has ousted party president Rana from party’s top post after holding general convention one day after the party expelled ten members from the party’s central working committee.

Pashupati Shumshere JB Rana (File Photo)

Pashupati Shumshere JB Rana (File Photo)
Rana faction had filed a writ petition at the Patan Appellate Court against the special general convention of the dissident faction of the RPP demanding a stay order from the Court not allowing the dissident faction to use the party flag and party office.

In response to a writ petition, the Patan Appellate Court has summoned the Election Commission (EC) regarding the claims made by the dissident group of the RPP on the party’s election symbol, among others.

12 security personnel including a police inspector were killed and seven policemen and one civilian were injured in a series of attacks carried out by Maoists in different police posts of the valley on Saturday evening.

These are the first simultaneous attacks in Kathmandu Valley by the Maoists. Last year, the Maoists made an offensive at the Sankhu police station, killing five police personnel.

The Maoists attacked the Police Check Post at Thankot, killing at least 11 policemen, including an inspector and injuring one, by surrounding the check post from all sides at around 5:35 Saturday evening, according to reports.

Those killed are police inspector Mahesh Rawal, sub-inspectors Prakash KC and Ratna Subedi, police constables Ramhari Dahal, Mithu Karki, Surya Man Tamang, Dikendra Karki, Rabin Karki, Baburam Adhikari and a traffic policeman Dipendra Niraula.

Assistant sub-inspector Yadav KC died while on the way to hospital.

“They (the Maoists) appeared all of a sudden in combat dresses in front of my office and shot dead Dipendra Niraula and swarmed the office. They asked for money from the counter. When we didn’t budge, they broke into the office, vandalising the furniture, took the money from the counter and disappeared,” the Himalayan Times daily quoted Ramkumar Karki, staff of Kathmandu Metropolitan City Transportation Tax Depot as saying.

Ajay Thakur, a barber running a shop opposite to the police check post, said he saw a group of at least 40 gunmen getting off a bus and opening indiscriminate firing. “I sneaked inside my shop and remained quiet during the attack. The attack lasted for about half an hour,” he said.

Police personnel were attending the ‘roll call’ when the Maoists opened indiscriminate fire. Police said that the Maoists shot dead policemen on duty as sentries outside the police check post and opened firing at the police personnel attending the ‘roll call’ inside the police office. There were over 40 police personnel when the incident occurred. Some managed to flee during the attack.

Police said that Maoists used Self Loading Rifles, M-16 and Sub-Machine Gun in the attack. They also took away arms and ammunition from the police post.

In another attack, one sub-inspector was killed and seven others injured, including one civilian, when a band of suspected Maoists attacked Dadhikot Area Police Office, Bhaktapur. Sub-inspector Hari Prasad Wagle Sharma was killed in the attack.

Those injured in Bhaktapur are policemen Yubaraj Khatri, Narayan Puri, Nitim Shrestha, Raju Khatri, Pandab Karki, Ram Poudel and Bharat Karki. One civilian Sangeeta Malla was also injured.

A group of over 20 gunmen indiscriminately opened fire at around 6 p.m. Police also retaliated and shot back, police said.

In Bouddha, a group of suspected Moaists exploded a bomb at the office of the Kathmandu Metropolitan City Ward No-6, slightly damaging the building.

The incident occurred at around 7:15 p.m. Police said suspected Maoists also exploded a bomb in front of the house of Tej Jung Thapa, father of the Chief of Army Staff Pyar Jung Thapa at Jorpati. A pressure cooker bomb explosion also took place at Thali in the Saturday evening.

The Maoists exploded bombs at the offices of Madhyapur Thimi Municipality Ward no 1, 2 and 3, damaging the office buildings. The Maoists also blew up the office of Lalitpur Sub-Metropolitan City Ward-9 at Chyasal Saturday evening.

Krishnasenonline, a pro-Maoist news agency, has owned responsibility of Saturday’s attacks at Thankot and Dadhikot and has claimed that there has been no casualty on the part of the rebels.

This is the first major attack by the rebels in the Kathmandu valley after they broke off their four-month-long unilateral ceasefire on January 2.

Nepali Congress vice-president Sushil Koirala

Nepali Congress vice-president Sushil Koirala
Nepali Congress vice-president Sushil Koirala on Saturday denied that his party or the seven-party alliance had adopted the agenda of a republic in Nepal saying reinstatement of the House of Representatives (HoR) was the common agenda of the seven-party alliance.

Speaking at an interaction in the capital on Saturday, Koirala said, “The revival of the House of Representatives is the common agenda of the alliance.”

“It is worthless to talk individually about a republican set up sitting inside a room unless people express their tremendous support for this,” said Koirala. “If the king does not accept multiparty democracy, human rights and press freedom in the country, we will say that the monarchy is not needed by us either,” he warned.

He also ruled out any misunderstanding in the seven-party alliance over the common demand. He also claimed that the alliance was more united now than before.

He claimed that the seven-party alliance alone was fighting for restoring peace in the country, and criticized the king and the government for not being serious about ensuring a conducive atmosphere for dialogue to resolve the existing Maoist problem and restore peace.

The index of Nepal Stock Exchange (Nepse) continued its upward trend this week, posting a 0.06 point rise.

According to weekly figure of the Nepse, the only secondary market, its index reached to 305.50 points on Thursday, the final day of transactions under the regular lot from 305.44 points on Sunday, the first day of weekly trading.

A total of 64,583 unit shares worth Rs 29.8 million were transacted over the week through 585 transactions. A total of 157,924 unit shares worth Rs 52.6 million were traded during the previous week.

Group-wise share trading shows that the index of the trading group increased to 142.83 points from 134.84 points. Likewise, the insurance group registered a rise of 0.44 points reaching its index to 331.07 points from 330.63 points.

However, commercial banks group saw a nominal decline of 0.1 percent with its index declining to 329.02 points from 329.12 points. The indices of finance and development banks groups decreased to 246.60 points and 228.46 points respectively, from 247.40 points and 229.89 points.

However, the indices of manufacturing, hotel and others groups remained static throughout the week at 274.42 points, 178.57 points and 354.13 points respectively.

Like the previous weeks, the commercial banks group captured 79.08 percent of the total share transaction. Finance group accounted for 9.16 percent market share while manufacturing group made up 7.33 percent share. Trading and insurance groups took 2.18 percent and 1.72 percent share respectively.

The 7th Nepal Open Paragliding Championship 2006 is kicking off in Pokhara on January 19 with the aim of promoting Pokhara as an adventure tourism destination and to contribute for the preservation of endangered vultures.

More than 100 Para-gliders are expected to take part in three categories of the five-day long event.

According to organizers, the championship will help in opening new avenues for the promotion of Himalayan adventure and will offer a powerful message to the receptive audience concerning the alarming rate of extinction of three vulture species.

Vultures play a vital role in our ecosystem by rapidly disposing of discarded carcasses that would otherwise pose a risk of disease.

Pokhara has remained one of the five world’s excellent areas for paragliding.

The organizers are also planning to organize a Paragliding World Cup in the days to come, according to reports.

Human Rights Organization of Nepal (HURON) has asked the Maoists to immediately release three general people who were abducted by the Maoists from Gundu Village Development Committee of Bhaktapur.

A press release issued by the HURON on Sunday said that Maoists took into control three people on Saturday and appealed to the Maoists for immediate and unconditional release of them.

The government is preparing for massive changes in the District Development Committees (DDCs) ahead of the municipal polls, a news report on Sunday said.

It is said that many handpicked DDC chairperson would be removed. The tenure of these officials is ending on January 17th.

The Rajdhani daily quoted a source as saying that the government is preparing to change the DDC chairman of 42 districts in the initial phase. The cabinet has decided to release 42 DDC chairmen from their responsibilities and appoint the vice-chairmen as the acting chairmen until new provisions are made.

The government is working to make such changes before implementation of the code of conduct for the upcoming municipal elections.

It is said that the changes are being made also on the basis of the reports and complaints that have been made against these officials, the report adds.

The independent radio broadcasters of the country have protested the government’s bid to introduce the broadcasting authority ordinance saying it is an attempt the curb the independent radios of the country.

A joint press statement issued by Broadcasting Association of Nepal (BAN), Kathmandu Valley Broadcasting Forum (KVBF) and Community Radio Broadcasting Association (CRBA) said the government has prepared a draft ordinance, which has the provisions for increasing the license fee of FM radios by 20 to 40 times and also increasing the annual license renewal fee.

These associations condemned the proposed ordinance, saying it is “intended to curb independent radios”.

As per the new provision, the registration fees of FM radio stations with capacity of 50 watts will be hiked to one million rupees from 25 thousand rupees. Similarly the registration fees of FM station of 100 watts, is proposed to be hiked to two million rupees from 50 thousand rupees, FM station of 500 watts have to pay four million rupees, which was two million before the amendment.

FM station with capacity of 1000 watts have to pay five million rupees as registration fees, and 10 million rupees for FM stations over 1000 watts. As per the existing rules, FM stations with capacity of 1000 watts or above have to pay five million rupees.

They have demanded that the government refrain from enforcing the ordinance and have warned of serious consequences if their concerns are not heeded.

“It is natural to doubt the motive behind the bid to introduce yet another ordinance by a government that has been trying to control independent radios through orders, directions and ordinance and even physically attacked some radio stations,” the statement adds.

However Spokesperson of the Ministry of the Information and Communications (MoIC) Ratna Raj Pandey told Nepalnews on Sunday that the Ministry has just initiated the discussion about the forming an broadcasting authority to systematize the broadcasting institutions.

“The discussion has just started, so we will hold extensive discussion in this regard, before forming such an institution,” he said.

He refuted the claim that the MoIC has proposed massive hike in the registration and renewal of license fees for FM radio stations.

Talking to Nepalnews, General Secretary of Kathmandu Valley Broadcasting Forum, Ghamaraj Luintel, said that MoIC has called them on Friday to discuss the proposed Ordinance.

According to Luintel, the representatives were not given the copy of the draft saying the ministry does not have time to discuss the draft with radio representatives.

Luintel further said that they protested the move of the MoIC to invite them just for representation.

He added that if the government is forming the Broadcasting Authority with good intention, there should be sufficient discussion with the stakeholders in this regard. He said that they had seen hike in the registration and renewal fees in the proposed Ordinance.

The Supreme Court is examining a number of cases related to media ordinance enforced by the government on October 9, which puts fresh curbs in independent media of the country.