Nepal at a standstill on second day of strike

As on the first day of the three-day strike, almost all shops, schools, businesses and factories remained closed while streets were empty of all vehicles except ambulances, state cars and police vans.

Drivers of the few private vehicles which ventured out covered up their registration plates, apparently for fear of being singled out and attacked by the rebel sympathisers.

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Government employees could be seen walking or cycling to their offices due to the absence of public transport.

The rebels, whose bloody struggle since 1996 for a communist republic has cost at least 9,500 lives, called the strike to protest the killings, arrests and disappearances of their leaders and activists, allegedly at the hands of the state.

Meanwhile, anti-monarchy demonstrators were planning to continue their protests into a seventh straight day Wednesday, organisers said.

Protests were planned for Kathmandu, where tens of thousands of activists have been turning up daily since last Friday to demonstrate near the royal palace.