May 22, 2008	Thursday	Jamadi-ul-Awwal 16, 1429

KATHMANDU: Nepal’s capital was brought to a tense standstill on Wednesday after the family of a businessman murdered by Maoists called a general strike, backed by rival political parties.

Groups of young men at major intersections in Kathmandu were forcing people off the roads.

The only vehicles on the streets were United Nations convoys, diplomatic vehicles and the occasional tourist bus.

“The Kathmandu valley has been effectively closed by the strike. All schools and major markets are shut,” Kathmandu police chief Sabendra Khanal said.

“Extra police have been mobilised, and we are keeping a close eye on the situation to minimise violence,” Sabendra Khanal.

The Maoists, regularly under fire over their human rights record, have admitted that their cadre abducted and killed Ram Hari Shrestha, a Kathmandu businessman and supporter of the former rebels, late last month.

Shrestha’s family have said the Maoists falsely accused him of being involved in stealing $26,000 and a handgun from a house he rented out to them. They say the ultra-leftists beat him to death and dumped his body in a river.

Maoist leader Prachanda has said the murder was an isolated incident carried out by “some selfish elements” within his party.

On Wednesday, a senior Maoist leader vowed to bring Shrestha’s killers to justice.

“We have promised that we will find the culprits and that they will be punished,” said Janardan Sharma, a deputy commander of the Maoists’ People’s Liberation Army.

But the Maoists said the political parties they defeated in recent polls were trying to make capital out of the killing.

Activists from parties beaten by the Maoists could be seen on the streets enforcing the strike.

“These protests are highly politicised, and other political parties are trying to take advantage of the situation.

This is very harmful under the present circumstances,” said Sharma.

The killing is a major embarrassment for the Maoists, who won elections to a new constitutional assembly in April and are poised to take the lead in shaping the country’s political future when the body holds its first meeting next week.

The Maoists signed up for peace and ended a decade-long civil war in 2006, but regularly come under fire for alleged beatings, abductions, extortion and killings by their supporters.

The United States still classes them as a foreign terrorist group.

The brother of the dead man said they would “intensify” their protests.

“Tomorrow, we plan to peacefully surround the parliament complex to pressure the government to form a committee to investigate my brother’s death,” Gyan Kumar Shrestha said.

It is not the first time Kathmandu has ground to a halt due to anti-Maoist protests.

In March 2007, business leaders in the city stopped work for three days and threatened to kick tourists out of hotels in protest over the abduction and beating of a hotelier who refused to pay protection money to the ex-rebels.—AFP