With no announcement of curfew during the day on Wednesday, people have heaved a sigh of relief in the capital and more vehicles were seen on the roads.

“The curfew clamped down within the Ring Road area of Kathmandu and Lalitpur districts has been lifted until further notice,” the state-run Nepal Television said.

Local authorities had imposed the day-time curfew in the capital valley on Saturday apparently to foil what the opposition parties said would be a huge rally in Kathmandu the same day. The government also closed down mobile phone services from early Saturday.

Mobile phones are still down.

People were glued to their radio and TV sets throughout this morning to figure out when the day-time curfew would be announced. UN vehicles, vehicles of journalists and other offices could be seen parked outside the Valley Traffic Police Office at Singha Durbar till 11 in the morning to get curfew passes.

Most of the people had predicted that the local authorities would again impose curfew to thwart the opposition’s programme to pay tributes to martyrs of the on-going movement at Tundikhel—a prohibited zone this afternoon.

The lifiting of curfew coincides with the return to capital of Their Majesties King Gyanendra ad Queen Komal from western town of Pokhara today. nepalnews.com by Apr 12 06