Thursday, February 3 2005 15:59 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Kathmandu: With most of the leaders being under house or underground after King Gyanendra assumed executive power, offices of political parties in Nepal wore a deserted look.

"No one comes to the party office since Tuesday (Feb 01, 2005)," said a caretaker looking after the ousted Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba's Nepali Congress Democratic party office, which has been locked for the past three days.

The signboard of the party was removed from the office, but party flags fluttered as security forces patrolled the street maintaining strict vigil.

Nepali Congress President Girija Prasad Koirala was put under house arrest on Tuesday and all other top leaders including spokesman Arjun Narsingh K C, Narahari Acharya and Tirtharam Dangol have been detained.

The CPN-UML general secretary Madhav Kumar Nepal was put under house arrest at his residence in Koteshwor. Party's spokesman Pradeep Nepal was arrested from the party office on Tuesday.

Other leaders including Bam Dev Gautam and Krishna Gopal Shrestha, member of the dissolved Parliament were also held.

Most of those arrested were held either at the Armed Police Headquarters at Halchowk in western Kathmandu or Nepal Police Headquarters at Maharajgunj, sources in political parties said.

No media person or rights group was allowed to meet the detained leaders. About two hundred students and youths belonging to the Nepali Congress, who demonstrated in the capital after the King sacked the Deuba Government and declared a State of emergency, were in custody.

Many leaders have gone underground and some of them have also cross the border to India, party sources said.