Tuesday, April 26 2005 22:27 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Kathmandu: Ahead of a massive anti-king protest planned by Opposition parties next week, authorities have arrested two prominent student leaders even as Nepal Communist Party-UML, the second largest political group in the kingdom, accused police of vandalising its central office in Kathmandu.

Gagan Thapa, a popular student leader and former general secretary of the Nepali Congress-affiliated Nepal Students Union, who led many anti-King demonstrations in Kathmandu in the past, was arrested by plain-clothe policemen from his residence in Kathmandu.

Police surrounded his residence and took him in custody without any arrest warrant early today (Apr 26, 2005), Nepali Congress sources claimed.

Earlier yesterday, police arrested Nepal Students Union president Keshav Singh from the party office of the Communist Party of Nepal-UML (CPN-UML) in Kathmandu. He had gone there to attend a condolence meeting to pay tributes to women's leader Sadhana Pradhan, who was also the wife of first Communist Prime Minister Manmohan Adhikari, party sources said.

About 25 plain-clothe policemen carrying arms "forcibly" entered the party office "to search some wanted student leaders" without any notice and vandalised the office materials, CPN-UML spokesman Pradip Nepal alleged.

They also misbehaved with the party workers and threatened to arrest some of them, he claimed, adding they came on a police van covering their face with anti-pollution masks.

Prominent political leaders, who had gathered at the CPN-UML office to attend the condolence meeting condemned the police's "act of vandalising" the party office.

This was an "illegal act" of the Government and was "deplorable", said former Prime Minister Surya Bahadur Thapa.

Condemning the incident, the CPN-UML in a statement asked the Government to stop such "irresponsible and anti-democratic activities."

The party also appealed for all to unitedly move ahead against the February 1 takeover of absolute power by King Gyanendra.

The Opposition parties have planned a massive anti-King protest on May Day on May 1.