International legal and human rights groups have called for targeted sanctions against Nepal's leaders in the wake of the growing crisis in the country, which earlier this month saw dozens of lawyers injured and arrested following a peaceful protest.

The International Commission of Jurists (ICJ) - whose UK member is Justice - Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch last week urged the United Nations Security Council to put Nepal's human rights abuses on its agenda, calling on countries to refuse entry to King Gyanendra, his senior officials and top military officers, and freeze any personal assets within their jurisdiction.


The appeal came at an international meeting convened by the Swiss government to review Nepal's human rights record, which has worsened since King Gyanendra assumed direct executive authority on 1 February 2005 with the stated goal of quelling Maoist rebels.


This week, in the face of mounting protests, the king said he would reinstate parliament and asked a former prime minister to head a new government.


The ICJ has also demanded the immediate release of 69 Nepali lawyers who were arrested and detailed as they joined hundreds of their colleagues in the peaceful pro-democracy demonstration organised earlier this month in Kathmandu by the Nepal Bar Association.


The first arrest by the waiting police was the association's vice-president as he stepped through the door of its premises. The president, Shambhu Thapa, was also arrested.


As the demonstration began, the police reportedly opened fire with rubber bullets, released tear gas and baton-charged the demonstrators.


At least 14 lawyers were reportedly injured, one receiving serious injuries from a rubber bullet and another from a tear-gas shell that hit him in the chest.


It is not the first time the Nepal Bar Association has put itself in the frontline. Two years ago, up to 500 lawyers were arrested at a peaceful demonstration, including Mr Thapa.


Amnesty's secretary-general, Irene Khan, said: 'The human cost of the conflict in Nepal has been catastrophic: people have been killed or "disappeared", women attacked and raped, children abducted to fight as soldiers and critics of the regime locked up.'


Last year, the UN human rights commission called for an end to arbitrary arrests and extra-judicial killings in Nepal, the use of torture and ill-treatment, as well as human rights violations by the security forces.