Nepal strike over alleged murders turns violent

Protesters shout anti-Maoist slogans in Kathmandu November 20, 2008.

KATHMANDU (Reuters) - At least two people were injured and police lobbed teargas shells to break up protests after a general strike over the alleged murder of two men by Maoists took a violent turn in the Nepali capital on Thursday.

The Maoists, who fought a civil war from 1996 to 2006, are now heading a coalition government after emerging as the largest party in an election in April. They have denied the allegations.

Police said eight vehicles, including a press car, were damaged by stone-throwing protesters who also smashed some windows of a hotel.

Two protesters were injured in clashes with rival groups as different student groups affiliated with political parties also joined the strike, police said.

The shutdown in Kathmandu was a new headache for the Maoist-led government as the closure paralysed life across the hill-ringed capital, home to more than two million people.

Shops were shuttered, cars stayed off the streets, schools were closed and demonstrators burnt tyres.

Media reports this week said police had dug up the decomposing bodies of two young men who were allegedly taken by members of the Maoist Young Communist League (YCL) last month from a district adjoining Kathmandu.

The Maoist Young Communist League has been accused of violence and intimidation in the past but denied involvement in this incident and said the charges were baseless.

"The incident must be probed and the guilty ones be punished," YCL chief Ganesh Man Pun told Reuters.

Victims' families and friends had called for the closure of transport, businesses, schools and colleges to protest against the killings and demand compensation.

Protesters marched through the streets chanting anti-Maoist slogans as hundreds of riot police looked on.

Banks and government offices were open but attendance was thin as the employees had to walk to work.

During their decade-long conflict, the Maoists regularly sponsored general strikes crippling transport and businesses in the landlocked mountainous nation.

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