Nepal strike holds firm

The seven-year-old Maoist insurgency has claimed more than 7,000 lives

Much of Nepal has remained shut for a second day as a strike called by Maoist rebels continued to grip the country on Friday.

Factories, schools and businesses were closed and public transport was cancelled in a rebel-led protest against the country's monarchy.

Despite a plea from the government for people to ignore the three-day strike call, many citizens heeded it, fearful of defying the guerrillas.

Violence has escalated in recent weeks after peace talks between the rebels and the government broke down in late August.

The stoppage is the rebels' toughest action since the return to war.

As the strike got under way at least two people were killed and several others injured when two bombs went off in the south of the country.

On the eve of the strike, the government said at least 35 rebels, and possibly many more, had been killed in an attack in the remote west of the country.

Life at a standstill

A BBC correspondent in the capital, Kathmandu, says usually busy main roads were silent.

Why the rebels use strikes

"It is a total strike," Krishna Shreshtha, a Kathmandu resident, told the Reuters news agency.

"Even petty vendors who opened in back alleys during earlier strikes are shut."

Soldiers and riot police patrolled the empty streets in open trucks, while buses, taxis, schools and businesses did not operate.

Airline officials said the domestic flight schedule had been affected by a lack of passengers, but international flights were running as normal.

The rebels' strike call appears to have been obeyed across the country, with reports that life in the eastern industrial town of Biratnagar and the trekkers' hub of Pokhara had come to a standstill.

Businesses are expected to bear the brunt of the closures.

Chandi Dhakal of the Federation of Nepalese Chamber of Commerce said the strike would only increase Nepal's economic woes, the Associated Press news agency reports.

Nepal "is already facing depression", Mr Dhakal warned.

Negotiations

Information Minister Kamal Thapa said the Government was ready for talks, but insisted the rebels must first renounce violence.

He told the BBC he saw little chance of a resumption of the peace process for the moment, however.

The rebels also say they are ready for dialogue, but want the government to agree on a constituent assembly that will draw up a new constitution.

They believe this will clear the way for their goal of replacing the monarchy with a communist republic.

Disagreement on the constitution led to the breakdown of the ceasefire and the general strike call.

The Maoists began their uprising against Nepal's constitutional monarchy in 1996 and nearly 8,000 people have been killed since then.