Mosque torched in retaliation

2004-09-01 08:33

Kathmandu - Around 4 000 people set Kathmandu's biggest mosque ablaze and smashed up private job recruitment agencies Wednesday in response to the killing of 12 Nepalese jobseekers in Iraq, witnesses said.

Protestors also pulled furniture and electrical equipment out of the Jama Masjid mosque and torched them on the sidewalk, they said.

Riot police used batons to push the angry protestors back from the mosque, eventually sealing off the area, which is near the Narayanhity Royal Palace, police said.

Earlier hundreds youths rampaged through the streets of the capital, smashing up more than a dozen private employment agencies that they blamed for sending the 12 Nepalese jobseekers to Iraq.

People turned violent

The mob shattered windows and set fire to vehicles, furniture, motorcycles and electrical equipment belonging to the agencies, police said.

"There are some people who turned violent and started attacking employment offices in Kathmandu," Home Minister Purna Bahadur Khadka said.

"We are trying to avert any serious violence in the capital and outside," he added.

Correspondents in the towns of Pokhara, Gorkha and Biratnagar said spontaneous strikes had been called to protest the killings, with youths taking to the streets to keep vehicles off the roads.

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 United States forces.

- AFP