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## Nepal police open fire on anti-king protests

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#### Reuters

KATHMANDU - Nepali troops opened fire on protesters on Tuesday, wounding several, after they burned tires, chanted slogans and clashed with police in defiance of a curfew in the sixth day of mass protests against the king.

The violence came as international pressure increased on King Gyanendra to end his crackdown on the protests, in which three people have been killed and hundreds wounded.

The street campaign is the most intense since the 58-year-old monarch sacked the government and seized power 14 months ago.

Some analysts say it is only a matter of time before the king runs out of options. They say the protests and clashes, including in places where shoot-on-sight curfews were in force, showed more ordinary people were coming out openly against him.

But sources close to the palace said the king, whom some analysts describe as a stubborn ruler, was unlikely to relent.

Troops baton charged, tear gassed and then opened fire to disperse more than 500 slogan-shouting demonstrators in the Kathmandu suburb of Gongabu, wounding at least 50 protesters, a Reuters reporter at the scene said.

It was the first time troops opened fire in the capital during the latest anti-king campaign. Emergency medical workers said several among the 50 wounded had sustained bullet injuries.

Tension flared in the area after the shooting as the activists returned soon and the army took position and gun fire could be heard again.

Troops also opened fire at a meeting called in the western tourist resort town of Pokhara to mourn a protester shot dead by the army there on Saturday, wounding two people, witnesses said.

In another Kathmandu suburb, about 500 youths burned tires on the road, chanting "We want Democracy" and "Gyanendra leave the country." Riot police charged at them with batons and beat them up, wounding at least two people before the crowd was dispersed.

The latest series of demonstrations and a nationwide general strike began last Thursday in an attempt to force Gyanendra to step down and hand power to an all-party government.

The campaign, backed by Maoist insurgents, had been due to end on Sunday but was extended indefinitely as stringent security measures prevented big rallies against the king.

On Tuesday, the government said it would search houses in Kathmandu for Maoist rebels who it says have infiltrated the protests and sparked violence.

U.S. REBUKE

So far, more than 300 people have been wounded and about 1,500 protesters detained during protests, the parties said.

Paris-based media watchdog Reporters Without Borders said 97 journalists had been detained and 24 wounded across the country.

While the mass campaign has plunged the nation deeper into turmoil, the king has stayed away from the capital for nearly two months, making an extended tour of the countryside.

The king says he was forced to take absolute power after politicians failed to quell the violent Maoist revolt aimed at toppling the monarchy, which has killed more than 13,000 people in the impoverished Himalayan country.

The revolt has also wrecked the economy of one of the poorest countries in the world which lives off aid and tourism.

The State Department issued a sharp rebuke to the king on Monday for his handling of the protests, saying the decision to impose palace rule had failed "in every regard."

"The king's continuing failure to bring the parties back into a process to restore democracy has compounded the problem," spokesman Sean McCormack said in Washington. "The United States calls upon the king to restore democracy immediately."

Rights group Amnesty International urged the royalist government to rein in the security forces, saying it feared an increase in violence in the coming days.

"Restricting peaceful demonstrations by ban orders and curfews and arbitrarily arresting hundreds of people only inflames an already volatile situation," it said in a statement.