Nepal's ex-king 'troubled' by state of nation
Nepal's former king Gyanendra said yesterday he is "troubled and anguished" by the state of his country, breaking a long silence after Maoists threatened to take to the streets.
A year after stepping down from the throne, Gyanendra said he had agreed to become a commoner in the hope that "peace and the law and order situation would improve".
But in a message released on his 63rd birthday, the former monarch said there had been "no improvement in the lot of my beloved fellow citizens, my brothers and sisters".
"I am very perturbed, very troubled and very anguished," he said, hours after Maoist leader Pushpa Kamal Dahal told Nepal's parliament he would launch a new street movement if it failed to address his concerns.
Gyanendra stepped down last year after Nepal's Maoists, who fought a decade-long civil war with the army, won landmark polls and legislated to do away with the world's last Hindu monarchy.
But the country was plunged into fresh political chaos on May 4 this year when Dahal resigned as prime minister after the president blocked his bid to sack the head of the army.
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