Under mounting pressure from the international community, Nepal’s CPN (Maoist) has agreed to call off their proposed blockade of the country’s only international airport in Kathmandu on 10th of this month.<br/><br/>This was decided after the CPN(Maoist) Chairman Prachanda held a meeting with the ambassadors of the USA, European Union and Russia to apprise them of the party’s protest programmes and to give assurance that the protest would be peaceful.<br/><br/>The diplomats urged the Maoists to call off the protests, which they said could escalate tensions and harm the country’s economy.<br/><br/>The envoys also urged the Maoists to respect the democratic process and use the parliament as well as other peace mechanisms to pursue their programme.<br/><br/>Meanwhile, the government placed its security agencies including the army, police and armed police on high alert as the opposition Maoist announced major anti-government protests to paralyse Kathmandu valley and hold demonstration in front of the government secretariat- Singh Darbar.<br/><br/>According to official sources, this was decided at a high level meeting chaired by Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal and attended by ministers, Chief of Nepal Army and heads of security forces including the police and armed police.<br/><br/>The opposition CPN(Maoist) declared nationwide protest movement from the 1st of this month as part of their campaign to protest against the President’s move on reinstating the former army chief sacked by the previous Maoist government and to restore 'civilian supremacy'.