BIRATNAGAR, June 7: Locals in Morang and Sunsari districts have retaliated against the Unified Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) cadres who turned aggressive while enforcing their one-hour banda (general strike) on Sunday morning.[break]
The Maoists, who announced the street movement against the president´s move to reinstate sacked army chief Rookmangud Katawal, called the one-hour strike a day after the Kochila banda paralyzed normal life in Morang, Sunsari and Jhapa districts on Saturday.
The irate public, who are frustrated with the impending banda called by the establishment faction of the Madhesi People´s Rights Forum for Monday, has hit back against the rod-wielding Maoist cadres who snatched keys of motorcycles and attacked stationary buses and trucks on their bullying banda-enforcing spree that started from Bargachhi.
Cadres of the Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist-Leninist) clashed with the banda, enforcing Maoists in Khanar, Sunsari, Sunsari police said.
Similarly, locals in Banepa, Kavre, vandalized the Maoists´ district contact office on Sunday morning to protest their sister wing´s forced banda, Avenues TV reported.
The locals vandalized the office after banda supporters vandalized a few vehicles which had defied the banda.
More clashes between the groups have been reported by TV channels. Sagarmatha TV reported that locals in Sanga Bhanjyang in Kavre have repulsed banda enforcers.
Maoist-affiliated Tamang Mukti Morcha has called a banda in 10 districts around Kathmandu Valley, including Chitwan, Makwanpur, Nuwakot, Sindhuli and Dolakha, demanding a separate state. Life in the districts has been hit hard by the banda enforced by the Morcha. All highways connecting the capital to the rest of the country have been blocked.
Meanwhile, our Chitwan correspondent Chandani Hamal reports that the banda has crippled normal life in Chitwan since early morning.
Banda supporters have staged demonstrations and road blockade at main places in Chitwan such as Lionschowk, Sahidchowk, Pulchowk and the key point of Anptari leading to Kathmandu since the early morning. Factories, educational institutions and markets in the district remained closed due to the banda.
Several vehicles heading for different places in the east have been grounded in Gaindakot of Nawalparasi due to the strike. In Makwanpur, the banda has brought traffic to a grinding halt, leaving many passengers heading to several destinations stranded.
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