Kathmandu, Dec 12 :Four days after a woman journalist was savagely attacked in western Nepal and left to die on a desolate hillside, police Saturday arrested five cadres of the opposition Maoist party, including a local leader.

Hundreds of journalists continued to march in protest in Kathmandu and towns outside the valley Saturday demanding punishment for the attackers, who had slashed radio and print journalist Tika Bista in Rukum district Tuesday, leaving her with deep gashes on her head, legs and arms.

Bista's laptop and mobile phone were smashed by the attackers, who apparently left her to die in the secluded spot. Bista, who worked for the Sisne radio station and Rajdhani daily, had been receiving death threats after she criticised the local Maoist leaders' using threats and intimidation.

She was airlifted to Kathmandu for treatment where she was visited by Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal, who promised her the attackers would be punished.

Rukum is a stronghold of the former Maoist guerrillas. The five men held for the attack belong to the Young Communist league, the dreaded paramilitary arm of the Maoists.

International media bodies have condemned the attack.

"The media environment for journalists has not improved since Nepal's transition to democratic rule in 2008," said Bob Dietz, Asia programme coordinator of the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists.

"Police must investigate the death threats Bista received and bring the perpetrators of this vicious attack to justice."

Though both the Maoists and the security forces targeted journalists during the 10-year communist insurgency, Nepal nonetheless was stunned this year when one of the most promising journalists in its Terai plains - a region where daughters are not encouraged to go to school - was hacked to death in her own apartment.

Uma Singh, a talented radio and print journalist who wrote against domestic violence in the Terai and the dowry curse, was killed, according to police, by her own sister-in-law over a property dispute.

This month, the UN agency for human rights in Nepal noted with concern that the Maoists had promoted two members in the Terai, who have been accused of abducting and killing in 2007 journalist Birendra Shah, who wrote about Maoist involvement in sandalwood smuggling. (IANS)