Two prominent student leaders were arrested in Nepal ahead of major anti-king protests planned for May 1, while the Nepal Communist Party-UML accused police of vandalizing its office in Kathmandu. Gagan Thapa, a popular student leader and former General Secretary of the Nepali Congress-affiliated Nepal Students Union, who led many anti-King demonstrations in the past, was arrested by policemen in plain clothes from his residence Tuesday. Party sources said the police did not have an arrest warrant.
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Yesterday, police arrested Nepal Students Union President Keshav Singh from the party office of the Communist Party of Nepal-UML (CPN-UML), where he had gone to attend a condolence meeting.
About 25 armed securitymen in plainclothes, their faces covered with 'anti-pollution masks' "forcibly" entered the party office "to search some wanted student leaders" without any notice and ransacked the office, said CPN-UML spokesman Pradip Nepal. They also misbehaved with the party workers and threatened to arrest some of them, he claimed.
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This "illegal act" of the government was "deplorable", said former Prime Minister Surya Bahadur Thapa.
Condemning the incident, the CPN-UML in a statement asked the government to stop such "irresponsible and anti-democratic activities."
The party also appealed for all to unitedly move ahead against the February one takeover of absolute power by King Gyanendra.
The opposition parties have planned massive anti-King protests on May Day.
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