Kathmandu: A Nepalese rights activist said security forces on Thursday stopped him from boarding a plane for the United States, where he was to address a conference on King Gyanendra's February 1 seizure of power. Former parliamentary speaker Daman Nath Dhungana said security forces halted him at capital's Tribhuvan International Airport as he was about to board a Royal Nepal Airlines flight. Dhungana said he had been invited by the University of California in Berkley to speak at conference related to the king's power grab and declaration of emergency rule, which suspended civil liberties. Under the emergency rule provisions, Nepalese citizens are forbidden from making comments critical of the king's takeover. "I was restricted from boarding the plane to the US by the security personnel this morning," Dhungana told AFP. "The security officer said my name was on a list of those restricted from travelling." Security forces also arrested the general secretary of the Nepal Communist Party (United), Bishnu Bahadur Manandhar, a representative of the small but influential party said. Police said they had no information on either incident. Manandhar's arrest came after Nepal, facing growing world pressure to free political detainees, released on Thursday eight party leaders and activists arrested after King Gyanendra's takeover. Among those released were former state foreign affairs minister Prakash Sharan Mahat, a member of the four-party coalition government dismissed by the king http://sify.com/news/fullstory.php?id=13690786