--- cntd Arrests of political leaders continued yesterday. The newly arrested leaders include the central committee members of Nepali Congress (Democratic), and ex-ministers – Prakashman Singh, Bimalendra Nidhi, Homa Nath Dahal, Prakash Sharan Mahat and Minendra Rijal - who were arrested from their party office in Kathmandu yesterday afternoon. On Thursday, the Nepali Congress (Democratic) leaders had decided that they would gather at their party office everyday as a symbolic gesture of resistance against the coup and to discuss the future moves. Newspapers also carried some reports of arrests of political leaders and activists outside Kathmandu after the king's military coup. Senior Nepali Congress leader and former Deputy Prime Minister Ramchandra Poudel was arrested from Tanahu. The General Secretary of Nepali Congress, Sushil Koirala, along with over a dozen political activists, was arrested from Nepalgunj on Wednesday. Thirty-five pro-democracy protestors including Amod Upadhyaya and Ashok Koirala, Nepali Congress leaders, and Guru Baral and Naresh Pokharel, CPN (UML) leaders, were arrested from Biratnagar on Tuesday, who were reportedly moved to the prison yesterday. They were reportedly charged under the Public Security Act, and put under 'preventive detention' for three months. Similarly, 21 pro-democracy protestors including the Nepali Congress leader Ganga Dutta Joshi, who were arrested from Mahendra Nagar earlier, were also reportedly moved to the Kanchanpur prison yesterday. They were also slapped with the Public Security Act and put under preventive detention for three months. The army is raiding the houses of civil society and political leaders Army personnel visited the houses of some human rights activists, who were reportedly on the hit list of the army even before the king's military coup. The human rights activists were not at home at the time of these visits. The army personnel also raided several times over the past week the house of one of the most popular democratic student leader of Nepal, Gagan Thapa. They misbehaved with his family members and took away his photographs from family albums. There were reports of the Nepal Bar Association representatives being threatened or south by the army. News from outside the Kathmandu valley are very difficult to gather and verify. The phone lines were active for about two hours yesterday afternoon and additional two hours in the evening. The social and political activists that our team had access to in the districts are either in hiding, or even when at home, feel insecure to divulge detailed information over the phone which they suspect might be tapped by the army. However, in the last three days, our team members called up sources in Pokhara, Nepalgunj, Nawalparasi, Chitwan, Birgunj, Janakpur to gather information. From each of these places, several dozen political activists and student leaders were reported to be arrested. Their whereabouts are not known. Given the trend, it can be safely assumed that arrests of political leaders must have taken place in many of the remote districts around the country. Firing from helicopter and torture against pro-democracy protestors Our team received reports from very reliable sources of the torture of the students from Prithvinarayan Campus, Pokhara. Fifty-eight students, out of the hundreds who were peacefully protesting against the king's coup inside the campus premises on 1 February were arrested by the Royal Nepal Army personnel and taken to the nearby army barrack the same day. Their hands were tied at the back and all of them were blindfolded. They were then severely beaten by the army personnel with fists, boots, sticks, and butts of rifles. Then they were made to sleep inside a "trench" without any bedding outside in the open for the whole night. Everyone of them visited by our source in Pokhara reportedly had bruises on their body, which have been photographed. There are very credible reports that the army fired tear gas shells and rubber bullets inside the campus premises from helicopter. Out team members are trying to get information on whether the helicopter used was provided by the Indian or the UK government as military assistance to the RNA and the King. The national Human Rights Commission has confirmed that it has received the reports of over 250 pro-democracy students being beaten inside the campus, a helicopter being used to fire tear gas shells and bullets against the protestors, and a few dozen of the protestors being taken to the army barrack and tortured. An NHRC official is quoted by an international newspaper as saying that they plan to conduct a fact-finding mission regarding this, but said that 'it is too dangerous for them to conduct a field visit at this time'. One international newspaper has described the Pokahara repression as 'Nepal's Tinanmen Square'. Reports of clashes with the Maoists: No way to check the ground reality