CHITWAN, March 14: Tharu demonstrators have vandalized a tractor being used to plow farmland at Dibyanagar in the eastern part of Chitwan district Saturday morning allegedly for defying the strike as their strikes entered 13th day. Local Thaneshwor Neupane was tilling the land using his tractor (Na2 Ta 6074).
The indefinite banda (general strike) called by the Tharu community in Chitwan, among other Tarai districts, is continue on Saturday. Tharu Kalyankarini Sabha, Tharuhat Struggle Committee and other organizations of Tarai indigenous communities have intensified their protests in the Tharu-populated areas from east to west of Tarai protesting against the concept of entire Madhes as a single province. The Tharu community is demanding that the government withdraw recently issued ordinance that includes them in Madhesi category.
Agitators vandalize tractor tilling farmland
Normal life has been crippled in Chitwan as the Tharu demonstrators started protests early in the morning on Satuday. The protestors have disrupted vehicular movement in the district.
Meanwhile, security personnel escorted about 100 tankers carrying petrol and 12 tankers carrying liquefied petroleum gas toward the capital city via Bara district, said Central Regional Police Office in Hetauda. Local authorities in Chitwan and Bara districts had enforced curfew orders with effect from 10 pm Friday to 4 am Saturday to ensure the tankers’ safety.
Police said that during the curfew hours, they rescued over 400 other vehicles stuck along the road because of the strike. Police in Chitwan said they escorted over 200 vehicles during the nighttime curfew.
In the night, 36 vehicles traveling from the western districts and 37 other tankers were safely escorted toward Kathmandu, said Inspector Prakash Malla at District Police Office, Chitwan.
