Two dead as Nepal police break up rally

KATHMANDU, Mar 29 (Reuters): Nepali riot police lobbed tear gas, fired water cannons and used rattan sticks on Friday to break up a protest rally demanding the restoration of constitutional monarchy, and at least two people were killed in the violence, police said.

Authorities said they had to use force to stop thousands of protesters breaking into an area where demonstrations and protest rallies are banned, and they later imposed a curfew in the affected area to stem further escalation of the violence.

The two people killed included one of the protesters and a journalist who was covering the rally, a police spokesman, Dinesh Kumar Acharya, told Reuters. Avenues TV said one of its journalists had died when a house he was in was set ablaze.

Another Nepal police spokesman, Shekhar Khanal, said protesters had set fire to a private house and a vehicle, adding that 17 people including three police personnel were injured.