Saturday, May 13 2006 13:38 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Kathmandu: Tightening its grip on those involved in suppression of the pro-democracy movement, Nepal's government today (May 13, 2006) suspended Chief Secretary of King Gyanendra's ousted regime and put travel restrictions on former ministers.

The development came a day after the government arrested five former ministers and suspended nine top security officials, including police and intelligence chiefs.

The authorities handed over the suspension letter to the Royal regime's Chief Secretary Lokman Singh Karki, who had instructed government employees not to take part in the pro-democracy agitation of the seven-party alliance last month and warned of stern action against those supporting democracy, a source close to the Home Minister said.

The government, meanwhile, has given Om Bhakta Rana, Basudev Oli and Dhan Singh Karki charges in acting capacity of the Nepal Police, the Armed Police Force and the National Investigation Department respectively after suspending the chiefs of the three security services.

Besides, it has put travel restrictions on all the ministers of the royal government. They cannot leave Kathmandu and security agencies have been instructed to arrest them if they do so, said the source.

Apart from the three security chiefs, the government suspended Additional IGPs Rajendra Bahadur Singh, Roop Sagar Moktan and Krishna Basnet as well as Armed Police Force AIG Ravi Raj Thapa and SSPs Madhav Thapa and Durja Kumar Rai for their direct involvement in excessive use of force to suppress the pro-democracy movement, according to 'The Kathmandu Post'.