Nepal has extended the detention of opposition leaders by two months, officials said on Friday, ignoring international pressure on King Gyanendra to restore democracy in the Himalayan kingdom. Dozens of political activists, including the chiefs of mainstream political parties, have been in detention or under house arrest since Gyanendra's February 1 power grab. Baman Prasad Neupane, chief bureaucrat of Kathmandu district, said the term of house arrest for six top opposition leaders - including former prime ministers Sher Bahadur Deuba and Girija Prasad Koirala - had been extended.
He gave no details, but analysts said the move might have been aimed at muting dissent and foiling possible popular protests against the king.
"It (the extension) does not mean that they will be detained for all 60 days. They could be freed earlier if the situation changes," one interior ministry official told Reuters. He did not elaborate.
The move comes ahead of a plan by five key political parties to organise their first joint protest in the capital next week to press the king to rescind his proclamation of an emergency.
Party officials said police had arrested at least six activists of the nation's mainstream communist party on Friday as they were planning a protest rally
The king says his decision to seize power was aimed at crushing an increasingly bloody anti-monarchy Maoist revolt in which more than 11,000 people have been killed in nine years.
In a statement on Friday, UNICEF urged "all parties to the conflict in Nepal to help facilitate the transport of vaccines, Vitamin A and de-worming drugs, which have been held up in the recent transport shutdown in the country".
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