The "peaceful Nepal banda" on Monday was called to protest the death of Tarun Dal Chitwan President Shiva Poudel on Saturday.[break]
The tourist van (Ba 1 Yan 850) was vandalized at Tilganga and the vehicles owned by hospitals, Ba 1 Jha 3783, belonging to Kanti Bal Hospital, and Ba 1 Ka 4846 were smashed at Machhapokhari and Buddhanagar respectively, according to Nepal Police.
NC cadres resorted to vandalizing despite the party´s pledge to not harm tourist vehicles, those of health institutions, press and other most essential services.
Similarly, a white van of Naya Patrika daily (Ba 8 Cha 3719) was vandalized near Guna Cinema Hall, Gwarko at 9:15 in the morning.
The banda enforcers torched a Maruti van (Ba 9 Cha 3720) near Tilganga Bridge at six in the morning while a rental car (Ba 1 Ja 163) was torched near Chabahil. Both the vehicles were completely destroyed by the fire. Likewise, a passenger microbus (Ba 1 Ja 9847) was vandalized in Balkumari while a Tata mobile (Ba 8 Cha 3789) was vandalized in Gwarko.
Similarly, two motorcycles (Ba 31 Pa 8551, Ba 47 Pa 9882) were vandalized at Satdobato, one (Ba 39 Pa 7877) at Koteshwar and another (Ba 44 Pa 2552) at Minbhawan, Baneshwar.
The police detained 29 banda enforcers from different places--17 from Thapathali, 5 from Sundhara, 4 from Tilganga, and one each from Gongabu, Hanumansthan and Balkhu. All of them were released later. The police had to fire tear gas shells to disperse crowd after NC cadres started pelting stones at Tilganga at 1:15 in the afternoon.
Meanwhile, NC, which withdrew the banda after four in the afternoon following agreement with the government, has maintained that the banda was peaceful. "It was peaceful compared to the bandas called by Maoists and CPN-UML," argued NC General Secretary Praksah Man Singh.
Related story
14 vehicles carrying garbage from Kathmandu to Bancharedanda va...
