Commies or royalists?
A mob set fire to Kathmandu's biggest mosque on Wednesday after Islamic militants in Iraq killed 12 Nepalese hostages, witnesses said. The protestors also destroyed furniture and electrical equipment in the Jama Masjid mosque, they said. Riot police used batons to try to control the angry protestors, the police said. Meanwhile, hundreds of angry youth even attacked private employment agencies in Kathmandu, blaming them for sending the 12 Nepalese jobseekers to Iraq. They also smashed the windows of the government Department of Labour and Employment office in the capital, the police said. The government, wary it will be targeted for its failure to secure the release of the hostages, beefed up security at important offices, an official said.
Demonstrations erupted in the capital Kathmandu late on Tuesday after news that the 12, who had left the impoverished kingdom in search of jobs, had been executed by militants who had abducted them about 10 days ago, accusing them of co-operating with US forces. Around 50 people demonstrated outside a mosque in Kathmandu on Tuesday night. They burnt tyres and demanded punishment for those behind the murders, the police said. A statement announcing the killings was posted on an Islamist website by an Al Qaeda-linked group called the Army of Ansar al-Sunna and accompanied by pictures and video footage of the killings. |