April 27, 2002	Saturday	Safar 13, 1423

KATHMANDU, April 26: Nepal’s King Gyanendra escaped a brush with death when security forces detected two bombs planted by Maoists guerillas on his convoy route as more people defied a strike called by the rebels, officials said on Friday.

Junior Home Minister Devendra Raj Kandel said on Thursday security forces spotted and defused the bombs on a Kathmandu road along which the king was due to travel.

“Security forces detected the bombs and defused them” before the king drove down the road, Kandel told Reuters, adding the bombs did not appear to be targeted at anyone. “It just happened to be on the street His Majesty was supposed to drive on.”

“They (the Maoists) were only trying to terrorise people.”

The tiny Himalayan kingdom is still reeling from the June massacre of popular King Birendra and other royal family members by Crown Prince Dipendra, who later shot himself.

The rebel war to oust the constitutional monarchy and replace it with a one-party communist state has intensified since then.

The incident — which occurred near the U.S. embassy — came despite tight security, with hundreds of armed soldiers and police on the streets during the nationwide five-day general strike ordered by the rebels.

Maoists also bombed a bus near a hospital in the heart of the Nepali capital, wounding four people in an apparent warning to people to obey the strike, police said.

But despite fears of reprisal, many defied the strike on its fourth day with activity on Kathmandu’s streets almost back to normal on Friday. “On the whole, the strike has been a total failure,” Kandel said.

Grocer Chandra Shrestha, who reopened on Thursday, said he could not afford to remain shut. “I have to support my family with this small shop. I can’t afford to close for five long days,” he said.

In Nepalgunj, where there is a heavy Maoist presence, one resident said that a number of shops were open and that local transport was running, but no long-distance buses were on the roads.

But schools and colleges across the country remained closed, and some areas without a heavy security presence were still shut. Residents said many people feared the insurgents would punish anyone defying the strike.

Rebels routinely chop off or break the limbs of people they declare enemies of their “people’s war”.

“If I open, I fear the Maoists will come and attack me in the future,” souvenir shop owner Madhav Kuinkel, 28, said.

The rebels walked away from peace talks and broke a truce in November, prompting a state of emergency and the deployment of the army for the first time in the six-year revolt that has killed more than 3,500 people.

The guerrillas are inspired by Chinese leader Mao Zedong’s drive to empower peasants and end what was seen as the corrupt urban elite’s privileges.

The rebels launched a campaign of intimidation in the run-up to the strike, including a series of bomb blasts in the capital.

Although the rebels’ main strength is in rural areas, they run a shadowy network of sympathisers in Kathmandu