More than 100,000 people launched a huge rally on Monday in Nepal's capital Kathmandu to call for peace in the country.

More than 300 organizers from different sectors organized the peace rally to mount pressure on the anti-government guerrillas and the government to initiate peace talks, Mathura Prasad Shrestha, coordinator of the Civil Society for Peace, told Xinhua.

"The rally is totally peaceful and voluntary, perhaps the biggest in the history of the Himalayan kingdom," Shrestha said.

Students and people from different walks of life carried banners and chanted slogans "Give peace a Chance" and "The country and people can no longer bear war."

The anti-government guerrillas have been imposing indefinite transport strikes and blockades on various highways in Nepal in the past five days, badly hitting normal life throughout the kingdom.

More than 10,000 Nepalese people have lost their lives since the anti-government insurgency broke out in early 1996.

Source: Xinhua