The king had accused the parliamentarian parties of corruption. He also said that once corruption is controlled, the Maoist problem would be finished because the people would have no more reason to oppose the regime. Of course, it is not just corruption but the whole nature of Nepalese society and the feudalistic and foreign-dominated regime that rules over it that has lead so many millions of people to support the Maoist-led New Democratic revolution aimed at instituting socialism and advancing to world communism.

Maoist military attacks, massive demonstrations hit Nepali monarchy

29 January 2006. A World to Win News Service. The Nepali monarchy has been shaken as never before during the past few weeks under combined blows from two directions – the military offensive launched by the Communist Party of Nepal after it called off its four-month-long unilateral ceasefire, and clashes between demonstrators and police in Kathmandu and other key cities on a scale and level of violence not seen in decades. Following tumultuous street demonstrations and clashes with police organised by the parliamentary opposition parties against the king and his attempts to hold municipal elections 8 February, the CPN(M) has called for a seven-day general strike and countrywide shutdown 5-11 February.

In one of the most important Maoist-led assaults on key regime military positions, on 24 January the People’s Liberation Army attacked police checkposts inside the mid-Western city of Nepalganj. BBC reported an hour-long battle in a crowed residential neighbourhood, and shooting and explosions in several other places. The British news outlet also reported extensive government losses when the PLA ambushed a Royal Nepalese Army patrol south of the capital 21 January. Another battle was reported in Bhojpur, in eastern Nepal. Some 80 percent of the country has been liberated, including most of the countryside, where the people now hold revolutionary political power. Clashes between Royal Army troops and PLA soldiers were reported in villages 50 kilometres south of Pokhara, a city to the west of the capital.

King Gyanendra staged a coup against parliament last year, dismissing parliament and taking all power into his own hands. Late last year the opposition alliance of the seven parliamentary parties and the Maoists signed a 12-point memo of understanding for joint struggle against the monarchy, including a boycott of the upcoming municipal elections, which they consider a thinly disguised bid to put a better face on the absolute monarchy, especially for the benefit of the major powers that have long supported the king against the people’s war.

The south-eastern city of Janakpur saw the country’s biggest demonstration since the kings’s coup as more than 100,000 people flooded the streets in a protest against the monarchy 12 January. On 19 January, the king had more than 50 opposition leaders and political and human rights activists rounded up and imprisoned, banned all demonstrations, imposed a night-time curfew (beginning in the early evening outside of the capital) and cut all land-line and mobile phones.

Kathmandu witnessed huge demonstrations on 21 January. That weekend, some foreign journalists felt that the regime was tottering on the brink. Police used water cannons, tear gas and batons against thousands of protestors. BBC reported that the authorities packed at least 200 demonstrators and possibly more into trucks and took them off to an unknown location. Although demonstrations on 22 January were smaller than the day before, the seven-party parliamentary opposition announced plans for a new a national general strike. On 27 January, when police attacked gathering crowds in the capital, thousands of demonstrators unleashed torrents of bricks on police. The monarchy imposed a daytime curfew at the weekend, followed by an evening and a night-time curfew on the following days. The streets were deserted, and the Himalayan peaks could be seen clearly in the unusually clean air as almost all traffic ceased on the capital and most roads throughout the country and schools and businesses stood empty. In Pokhara, police opened fire on crowds of demonstrators using live ammunition, leaving one man wounded.

As the elections approached, the number of candidates dwindled so much that in 22 of the 36 municipalities there was only candidate – or even none at all in a quarter of the municipalities. Some 600 candidates resigned. The government took many of the remaining candidates into custody “for their own protection