Former Nepal Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala yesterday called on citizens to take to the streets to restore democracy in the wake of King Gyanendra's seizure of power.

The appeal by Koirala, who served four times as premier of the Himalayan nation, was the first call for demonstrations by a mainstream politician since Gyanendra dismissed Sher Bahadur Deuba and his government on Tuesday, saying it had failed to crush a Maoist revolt and hold elections.

"I call upon all the pro-democratic journalists, political workers, youths and students and Nepalese brothers and sisters to oppose this unconstitutional step of the king," Koirala said.

"I call upon them to take to the streets to restore the sovereign power of the people and safeguard the constitution of 1990," he said in a statement.

Koirala, who is under house arrest, called Gyanendra's seizure of power and declaration of emergency rule "a flagrant violation of the agreement reached in 1990 between late King Birendra and the Nepalese people".

Koirala's appeal came after the kingdom's army chief said security forces battling Maoist rebels would be told to uphold human rights but warned that guerillas face tough action if they refuse Gyanendra's offer of peace talks.

Security forces should not "harbour any illusions about having unlimited powers during the state of emergency," army chief of staff General Pyar Jung Thapa said.

Dozens of paramilitary police raided an underground political meeting and rounded up a group of party officials yesterday.

About 50 members of the Nepali Congress-Democratic had gathered in the yard of the party's headquarters when the paramilitary police arrived, surrounding the building.

While most of the party members slipped out in the minutes after the raid, about a dozen were left inside when police locked the gates.

A senior minister in Nepal's new cabinet named by King Gyanedra urged the world to back the monarch's seizure of power as the only way to end a bloody Maoist revolt and restore lasting democracy.

"The concern of the international community is about the future of multiparty democracy in Nepal ... the king's commitment to multi-party democracy is total," Foreign Minister Ramesh Nath Pandey said in an interview.

The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights denounced yesterday widespread arrests of political leaders and trade unionists in Nepal, and called for an end to their "arbitrary detention". "These people are being held in arbitrary and often acknowledged detention without access to legal counsel, families or international representatives," Louise Arbour said.

PHOTO CAPTION

A Nepalese girl carries an infant on her back at a popular tourist quarter in Kathmandu February 5, 2005. (Reuters)