Kathmandu, Aug 15: More than 10,000 youth and student activists and trade unionists on Friday staged an anti-monarchy demonstration here, witnesses said. The protestors shouted slogans like "don't wipe out democracy" and "down with the regressive monarch" as they marched through the city as part of a protest organised by the country's five largest political parties.

Senior party leaders, including Nepal Communist Party-United Marxist and Leninist (NCP-UML) leader Bharat Mohan Adhikari, also took part in the march which disrupted traffic for two hours in the city, witnesses said. Police in riot gear followed the demonstrators but there was no trouble.

The NCP-UML is one of five mainstream political parties which launched a joint push against the King after he sacked the elected Prime Minister, Sher Bahadur Deuba, on October 4. King Gyanendra replaced him with royalist Lokendra Bahadur Chand and at the same time postponed parliamentary elections.

Chand resigned in May, saying he wanted to end the political turmoil. But the parties were even more infuriated when the King ignored their suggestions for premier and appointed Surya Bahadur Thapa instead.

They have vowed not to cooperate with the Thapa government.

Bureau Report