Kathmandu, Jan 7 (IANS) Five foetuses in a plastic bag fished out by a ragpicker from a dump by the side of one of Kathmandu valley's holiest - and most polluted - rivers has raised the spectre of flourishing illegal abortions, police said.

Kajal Kumari, a ragpicker who had Wednesday gone to the Kuleshwor area of Kathmandu valley, the place where Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal's family residence is located, found the bag in a garbage dump by the side of the Bishnumati river that flows along some of the holiest Hindu and Buddhist shrines in the valley.

She fished it out hoping for goods that could be salvaged. But when she opened it, the sight of the tiny human heads inside made her start screaming and brought the police to the spot.

Police said the foetuses were about six months old, raising the possibility of illegal abortions.

Nepal, once a conservative Hindu kingdom that had the most stringent anti-abortion laws, relented after long campaigning by women rights activists to allow abortion.

However, the new law introduced in 2002 allows abortion only up to 12 weeks of pregnancy if a certified medical doctor recommends it on the ground of the child endangering the mother's mental or physical health or is disabled.

In case of rape or incest, abortions are allowed till the 18th week of pregnancy.

However, though abortion was partially allowed, lack of access to safe abortion facilities, the social stigma that is still attached to abortions and the growing migration of men abroad have contributed to unsafe, illegal abortions.

There are growing reports of extramarital affairs when the husband is away for years, leading to abortions.

In the Terai plains of Nepal, women rights activists fear abortions are growing due to families undergoing tests to detect the sex of the foetus and opting for an abortion if it is found to be a girl child.