By TILAK P. POKHAREL and SOMINI SENGUPTA
Published: April 7, 2006

KATMANDU, April 7 --- Flouting a government ban on political demonstrations, hundreds of Nepalis took to the streets of the capital today demanding a restoration of democracy, pummeling police with stones and inviting arrest on the second of a four-day nationwide strike.

The strike has been called by a coalition of Nepal's seven largest political parties demanding a return to parliamentary rule. It is endorsed by Maoist rebels who have fought a bruising decade-long war to topple Nepal's monarchy. The rebels say they are not taking part in the demonstrations and have pledged to refrain from violence in the capital during this time. The government has dismissed the rebels' promise and banned all political rallies in the capital, on suspicion of Maoist infiltration.

At least 200 people had been taken into custody by Thursday night, according to monitors from the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights. Rally organizers said riot police arrested another 142 demonstrators today, but those claims could not be verified. The protests were considerably larger today than the day before, but the number of arrests smaller.

King Gyanendra today issued an unusual call for calm. "To establish permanent peace in the true sense is the need of the day," he said in a televised speech from Birgunj, about 125 miles southwest of the capital. "Let us all pledge to dedicate some of our time towards this noble cause."

Nearby, protesters burned a gate erected to welcome the King to Birgunj. In another display of anti-monarchy sentiment, demonstrators on the Tribhuvan University campus here in the capital tore down statues of two of Nepal's former queens. "Down with autocracy," the protesters shouted across the city. Riot police used tear gas to disperse the crowds.

The United Nations, the European Union, Japan and India have condemned the crackdown on political demonstrations and arrests. "While maintenance of law and order is the responsibility of the state, security considerations should not be the basis for denying citizens their right to peaceful protest," the United Nations Secretary General, Kofi Annan, said in a statement issued Wednesday on the situation in Nepal.

This week's arrests echoed a crackdown on a similar protest called two months ago. Seven top party leaders remain in custody.

The rallies this week are designed to build up to a massive protest here on Saturday to mark the 16th anniversary of democratic rule. Nepal won a parliamentary democracy in April, 1990, but democracy has hard time sustaining itself in this Hindu kingdom. The elected parliament was ousted in 2002. King Gyanendra installed and removed prime ministers of his own choosing. In Feb., 2005, the King assumed total control of the government, imposing emergency rule and limiting a broad range of civil liberties in an attempt to quash a debilitating Maoist insurgency.

That insurgency has shown no signs of abating. In ten years, 13,000 Nepalis have been killed in the conflict, the majority of them during Gyanendra's tenure.

Maoist violence outside of the capital kept up at a steady clip. Late Wednesday in southern Sarlahi district, some 2,000 Maoists stormed government buildings and security posts, taking hostage two dozen police officers and a local government official. During the fighting, a Russian-made MI-17 government helicopter crashed, killing 10 soldiers. Another 13 people, including several rebels, were killed in the Sarlahi clash.

Tilaik P. Pokharel reported for this article from Katmandu, and Somini Sengupta from New Delhi.