Nepal's president has said he was seeking an end to the crisis that has engulfed the Himalayan nation since deadly protests this week ousted the prime minister and left parliament in flames.
"I am consulting and making every effort to find a way out of the current difficult situation in the country within the constitutional framework," President Ramchandra Paudel said in a statement on Thursday.
"I appeal to all parties to be confident that a solution to the problem is being sought as soon as possible to address the demands of the protesting citizens." KP Sharma Oli, 73, a four-time prime minister, resigned on Tuesday in the face of protests.
His whereabouts remain unknown.
Constitutionally, 80-year-old Paudel should invite the leader of the largest parliamentary party to form a government.
Army chief General Ashok Raj Sigdel held talks with key figures and "representatives of Gen Z" on Wednesday, a military spokesperson said, referring to the loose umbrella title of the protest movement.
The army has imposed a curfew in the Himalayan nation of 30 million people after the worst violence in two decades.
Paudel urged Nepalis to "practice restraint and cooperate to maintain peace and order in the country.”
Prisoners on the run
Nepal's army said it has recaptured nearly 200 prisoners after mass jailbreaks during deadly protests that toppled the government, a fraction of the thousands on the run.
Around 13,500 detainees escaped from prisons nationwide during the chaos, police said, leaving security forces scrambling to regain control.
It has added to the challenges facing the army and police as they try to restore order in the wake of the most violent protests in decades.
"The Nepali Army has recaptured 192 prisoners," the army said in a statement, saying they had fled jail in the southeastern city of Rajbiraj.
At another prison in Ramechhap, east of the capital Kathmandu, fighting erupted, and the Nepali Army "opened fire, wounding 12 prisoners and killing two,” the statement added.
India's border force said it had detained scores of fugitives who tried to sneak across the vast and porous frontier into the neighbouring states of Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal before handing them back to Nepali authorities.
"We have detained and handed over at least 60 prisoners who escaped from multiple Nepali prisons," an Indian border force official said.
Nepal's army said it had also recovered nearly 100 weapons looted in the uprising, during which protesters were seen brandishing automatic rifles. Parliament, government and presidential offices, commercial buildings were set ablaze after at least 19 protesters were killed in a crackdown on demonstrators.
