Pyuthan, August 6:

Leaders of the agitating parties today accused King Gyanendra of ruling the country on the lines of Pakistan and Thailand. Addressing an interaction organised on “Joint agitation against regression” here, alliance bigwigs said it was the King who is dreaming ‘sweet dreams’ of ruling the country as a ruler on the lines of Pakistan and Thailand. People will be mobilized against regression and the agitation will be successful, said the district secretary of CPN-UML, Dhan Bahadur Roy Majhi. NC-D leader Hukum Bahadur Bista said it was surprising that a King who was yet to define how the royal massacre was staged, was ruling. The alliance leaders also urged political parties to cooperate without putting any conditions, in order to make the agitation successful. Meanwhile, representatives of professional organisations expressed their solidarity with the agitation, stating that they were ready to participate in the agitation spearheaded by the seven political parties. Central member of the CPN-ML, Prakash, was the chief guest of the programme that was chaired by the NC-D district president Shaligram Pandit.

A report from Dhankuta said participants at a programme today were of the view that good governance is possible only in democracy and called for its restoration. Addressing the two-day Human Rights and Conflict Management Training for Good governance, they said cases of human rights violations were on the rise. Addressing the programme, the chief district officer of Dhankuta, Sambhu Prasad Ghimire, said conflicts were causing rights violations. Despite the attempts made by some NGOs in managing conflicts and curbing rights violations, hardly any progress has been made in these fronts, he said. Kedar Khadka of the Pro-Public said that human rights situation is worse because fundamental rights of the people have been seized.