Kathmandu: Nepali troops shot dead an activist yesterday as violent pro-democracy protests flared for the seventh day across the Himalayan nation.
The latest death is the fourth during a mass campaign launched by political parties last Thursday to force the monarch to end his absolute rule.
The royalist government relaxed a daytime curfew in the capital city Kathmandu, although protests continue to be banned and there was no indication of King Gyanendra trying to defuse the crisis.
Yesterday's shooting took place in Nawalparasi town, 200km west of Kathmandu, when hundreds of demonstrators clashed with police, said Yogesh Bhattarai, a senior leader of the Communist Party of Nepal (UML).
Troops also opened fire at hundreds of activists in Jhapa town, to the east of Kathmandu, injuring several, one local journalist said. But local officials denied the shooting and said the protesters had only been baton-charged.
Hundreds of protesters defied a curfew in the western tourist resort town of Pokhara and clashed with police before some 200 were detained, witnesses said. About 5,000 people marched through the main streets of Nepalgunj town on the Indian border, about 550 km west of Kathmandu.
But despite the relaxation of the curfew in Kathmandu, there was a relative lull in protests with only a handful of peaceful demonstrations. The curfew had been imposed for several hours a day since Saturday to quell protests called by Nepal's seven main political parties against King Gyanendra's power grab 14 months ago.
Although political parties, businessmen, doctors and lawyers had vowed to stage a big demonstration in the capital yesterday, stiff security foiled their plans.
But ordinary people in Kathmandu, who poured into the streets with the curfew being lifted, said they were confident multi-party democracy would be restored soon.
"How long can they do this, how long can they beat people and arrest them and stop them?" asked Krishna, a Kathmandu resident who gave only his first name.
