Nepali police chief killed in capital

Nepal's civil war escalated sharply yesterday when the chief of the armed police was shot dead by Maoist guerrillas in Kathmandu. He was the most senior government official to be assassinated since the anti-monarchy uprising began seven years ago.

Kathmandu, capital of the Himalayan kingdom, was flooded with nervy security forces last night. They blocked exits from the city to try to trap the killers of Krishna Mohan Shresthroa, head of a paramilitary force set up specifically to counter the Maoists. The assassination badly shook the government as it took place inside Kathmandu, and not, like most of the violence in this conflict, in the rural areas of the country, which is sandwiched between China and an increasingly anxious India.

The head of the armed police, a force which according to human rights groups has committed multiple atrocities, was shot by at least three assailants as he was taking a Sunday morning stroll in a fashionable neighbourhood. His wife and bodyguard were also killed. Nobody had admitted responsibility by yesterday evening, but observers and analysts in Kathmandu were in little doubt that Maoists were responsible.

The assassination came four days after the marriage of Princess Prerna to a computer studies graduate from the University of California.

The conflict has claimed more than 7,000 lives – 4,000 in the past year.