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Kathmandu (dpa) - An umbrella group of Nepalese women activist groups on Saturday urged the Maoists to call off a seven-day countrywide shutdown slated to begin Sunday.
The Maoists are thought to have called the strike to disrupt municipal elections scheduled for February 8 by crippling all normal activity.
In a surprise development, the chair of the All Nepalese Women Association, Bidhya Bhandarim, appealed to the Maoists to withdraw their strike call and also called for a ceasefire. Nepalese political parties had yet to react to the strike call.
The women's statement came amid reports of increasing Maoist violence against candidates standing in the municipal elections.
Despite repeated appeals from national and international rights organizations for restraint, Maoists shot dead a civilian in Birgunj, a town on the Nepalese-Indian border, on Friday, the official Nepalese news agency, RSS, reported.
In Simara, about 30 kilometres north-east of Birgunj, Maoists also abducted three employees of Surya Nepal, a Nepal-India joint venture.
In Biratnagar, about 225 kilometres east of the capital, Maoists entered the house of a newly-elected municipal official and shot him dead.
The leftist extremists are also reported to have killed least two mayoral candidates and bombed the houses of other candidates.
The Maoists, who together with the seven main political parties are boycotting the municipal polls, have warned all those taking part that "action" will be taken against them.
The government said Saturday that it was taking "special measures" to counter the violence and appealed to motorcycle riders in Kathmandu not to carry pillion riders, for fear they could be mistaken for Maoist gunmen.
Meanwhile, the independent Kantipur Television reported that the Maoists Saturday morning released 21 out of 37 persons abducted after an attack in Tansen, the headquarters of Palpa district, on Tuesday night.
The Maoists have been waging armed insurgency for the past 10 years with the aim of setting up a communist republic in Nepal. It is estimated that over 13,000 people have been killed in the insurgency.
Copyright 2006 dpa Deutsche Presse-Agentur GmbH
