Protesters plan final heave to rid Nepal of monarch

The demonstrators in Nepal are calling for the people to make "one final push" and are predicting that that King Gyenedra has "only two days left" on the throne.

"We are about to win the war," Bamdev Gautam, the leading negotiator for the political parties with Maoist guerrillas, said to cheers at a mass rally. Mr Gautam was briefly imprisoned last week after returning from talks with the rebels. "Many Nepalis have given their lives to remove the king," he said. "We are not going back. We are not scared of the king's bullets ... because we are about to win the war."

Kathmandu, sitting in a ring of lofty mountains, has been left pockmarked and smouldering by the violence. Yesterday at least two dozen people were injured, some by rubber bullets, after further clashes between police and protesters in different parts of the city.

The King does seem to have been reduced to being mayor of Kathmandu over the past week as demonstrators have reduced his sphere of influence solely to the area inside the city's ring road.

The alliance of seven political groups, who have traditionally opposed each other, appears to be holding firm; with the aim now the removal of the King.

King Gyendera's violent put down of his people's protests appears to have undone him.

Tick, tock, tick, tock.

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Tags: Gyendera, Nepal, Kathmandu, protests, protesters,