The Royal Government on Monday freed the Communist Party of Nepal-UML’s Chief and restored some mobile phone services, two days after an emergency ended in the Himalayan nation.Officials said Madhav Kumar Nepal and another Communist leader, Amrit Kumar Bohara, were released from house arrest late on Sunday. The release of the two leaders came three months after King Gyanendra sacked the government, suspended civil rights and detained top politicians, blaming them for failing to tackle a deadly Maoist insurgency.The King, faced with international pressure to restore democracy and free politicians, lifted the emergency over the weekend but has retained extraordinary powers he assumed on February 1.‘‘The king must reverse all his moves and restore the situation to the pre-February 1 position,’’ Madhav Kumar Nepal told reporters after his release. He said political parties would form a common agenda and launch joint protests against the Monarch to press him to restore democracy. ‘‘Our struggle will be to make the people supreme: that is the restoration of full democracy,’’ he said.UML officials said hundreds of other activists were still under detention and new arrests were being made, despite the lifting of the emergency. As part of takeover, the government cut all phone lines and blocked Internet access and e-mail to stop politicians from organising protests, but restored fixed lines after a week. ‘‘It is fantastic that mobiles have started to work. Life has become easy now,’’ said journalist Keshav Pant. But not all phones were restored. State-owned Nepal Telecom said only 34,000 post-paid mobile connections had been restored in the Kathmandu valley, home to 1.5 million people. — Reuters
