India, Jan. 12 -- Nepal President Ramchandra Paudel on Sunday called for "safeguarding" national independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity, as the Himalayan nation observed National Unity Day - the birth anniversary of nation-builder Prithvi Narayan Shah.

Paudel paid tributes to then-Gorkha King Shah on his 304th birth anniversary. He unified around two dozen smaller states into a greater Nepal in the mid-18th century. "Let the national unity day inspire all of us to achieve prosperity and happiness while safeguarding national independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity of the country," Paudel said in a message on the occasion.

He laid a wreath at Shah's statue in front of the Singha Durbar secretariat in Kathmandu dur...