Hundreds of slogan-shouting supporters of Nepal's opposition parties marched through Kathmandu on Monday to demand an all-party government to end long-running political turmoil in the Himalayan kingdom.
About 1,000 activists, many wearing black clothes, wound their way through the temple-studded capital's narrow streets to mark the anniversary of King Gyanendra's dismissal of an elected prime minister two years ago.
"This is a black day," said Kabita Ghimire, one of the protesters, wrapped in a knee-length black sheet.
Gyanendra fired Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba two years ago as head of the government but re-appointed him in June after often-violent demonstrations by major political parties that accused the monarch of exceeding his constitutional role.
The opposition parties also oppose Deuba, calling his reappointment illegal and demanding that Gyanendra restore the parliament he dissolved two years ago and form an all-party government.
"We are making efforts to force the king to accept our demand," said 40-year-old Bhupendra Poudel, carrying a black flag barely 500 m (1,500 ft) from Gyanendra's sprawling palace. "We will continue to protest until we succeed."
Riot police stood behind barbed wire barricades but did not intervene.
The protests came as Deuba's government made a fresh appeal to Maoist rebels for peace talks to try to end an increasingly bloody insurgency that has claimed more than 10,000 lives since 1996.
The Maoists, who want to overthrow the nation's constitutional monarchy and replace it with a communist republic, have not responded.
The world's only Hindu kingdom, wedged between Asian giants China and India, has been rocked by political instability since multi-party democracy was established in 1990.