http://www.boston.com/news/world/asia/articles/2006/04/24/a_fractured_nepal_agrees_only_that_king_must_go/ A fractured Nepal agrees only that king must go By Tim Sullivan, Associated Press | April 24, 2006 KATMANDU, Nepal -- The protesters crowding a road in a whistling, seething mass yesterday were clearly unified in their quest to force Nepal's king from power. They roared their approval as a straw effigy of King Gyanendra was burned. They cheered demonstrators who dared to confront police. They chanted for a return of democracy and an end to royal rule. 'Gyanendra go now!" they shouted. But that is where agreement ends. Watching the demonstration from the stump of a roadside tree, recently chopped down by protesters to create a roadblock, a young lawyer saw little but contradiction. 'These people don't agree on anything -- only that the king should be gone," said Khamraj Khadka, 26, waving his hand at the 5,000 or so protesters. Two weeks of demonstrations have regularly brought tens of thousands into the streets around Katmandu, and smaller crowds in other cities across this Himalayan nation, but under that surface unity is a deeply fractured political scene. Politicians ousted when the king seized absolute control in 2005 want their power back, with a restored Parliament, but are widely despised for ineffectiveness and corruption. Maoist rebels want to end generations of feudal-style rule but have a long history of brutality in areas under their control. Many in the crowds of demonstrators know they have had enough of their king, but have thought little about what may come after. The violence continued overnight, as police fired rubber bullets at protesters in the capital and hundreds of Maoist rebels stormed a town in eastern Nepal. The rebels fought a six-hour gun battle with security forces in Chautara, attacking a jail and police station among other government buildings, a senior government official said today. Communication had been cut. 'It appears to be a pretty big attack," said the official, who declined to be named. 'District authorities have requested helicopter support, and we are rushing in reinforcements." The political parties and the Maoists have been bitter enemies for years and still openly trade insults, leading many observers to worry that the country could descend into chaos. While the king is desperately isolated, sealed inside his palace and kept in power only by the loyalty of his security forces, his opponents make little effort to hide that they can barely stand one another. 'Do I trust the Maoists? Of course not -- at least not completely," said Jhala Nath Khanal, a top official of the Communist Party of Nepal and a key intermediary between the opposition's seven-party alliance and the guerrillas. 'They talk about democracy now, but violence is a part of their philosophy." The feelings are mutual. 'The very character of the seven-party leaders fluctuates," Matrika Prashad Yadav, a Maoist leader arrested in 2004, said in an interview in jail. 'If they're talking to the foreign powers, they say one thing. If they talk to us, they say another thing . . . So the people do not trust them."