Kathmandu: A day before Nepal's political parties are set to launch their agitations, a large number of teachers, lawyers and engineers belonging to unions affiliated to them on September 3 held demonstrations against the government's decision prohibiting strikes, rallies and public meetings.

Police arrested the protestors led by Human Rights activist Sindhunath Pyakurel, and released them later, as Nepali Congress president Girija Prasad Koirala appealed to the unions to make successful the seventh phase of agitation starting from September 4.

In a statement, he asked people to "defy the government's ban on protest" terming it as a "straight violation of Human Rights and Fundamental Rights of the Nepalese people".

"The reinstatement of the House of Representatives is the only way to reactivate the Constitution and protect the achievements of 1990 democratic movement", he said.

The agitating parties, however, decided to avoid direct confrontation with the government in the wake of the growing Maoist violence in the country by modifying their earlier set programmes of agitation.

Thousands of party workers, intellectuals and students are expected to court arrests in the major streets of Kathmandu on September 4.

The seven-day protest shows will be launched separately in Kathmandu and outside the valley in the backdrop of fresh round of violence and terror unleashed by the Maoists.

The government has already declared almost all parts of Kathmandu valley as riot-prone zones and mobilized maximum number of security forces in and around Kathmandu.

PTI