While all residents of Kathmandu Valley were severely inconvenienced by the strike, students of the eleventh grade were the most affected. [break]
The students had to commute on foot to appear for their ongoing final exams. The students who appeared for the exam from 7 am to 10 am returned home in the hot Sunday afternoon sweating profusely and cursing their luck.
Bikram Sinkeman, 11th grader at Golden Gate College, had to commute on foot from his Bhaktapur residence to V.S. Niketan, the exam center, at New Baneshwar to sit for Maths exam. Sinkeman has an exam on Monday as well, and will have to commute on foot again if the two-day strike is not called off.
Some students said they developed fever due to exertion caused by studying, appearing for exam and commuting on foot in the heat.
TUTH bus vandalized
Strike enforcers vandalized a staff bus of Tribhuvan University Teaching Hospital at Balkumari area early Sunday. The strikers smashed the windshield of the bus.
Strikers also smashed the windshield of a garbage truck (Na 2 Kha 8423) at Gongabu.
Police had to resort to baton charging after demonstrators tried to enter a prohibited area near the President´s Office. One demonstrator was injured from a stone hurled by demonstrators themselves.
Police arrested 330 strikers from various locations of the city. They were released in the evening.
Motorcycle rally decrying strike
Meanwhile, tourism workers, industrialists, businessmen and commoners took out a motorcycle rally decrying the strike on Sunday. The rally of around 1,000 motorcycles started from Thamel, went through the city and concluded at Thamel.
At a corner meeting held at Thamel upon the conclusion of the rally, Federation of Nepalese Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FNCCI) Chairman Suraj Baidya said the country needs a constitution and not strikes.
He urged everyone to open their shops and businesses. Tourism workers have warned of coming up with tough measures if the strike, which enforcers say will continue on Monday as well, is not called off.
Photojournalist manhandled
Meanwhile a photojournalist with Abhiyan daily has been manhandled by banda enforcers in Satdobato, Lalitpur. The enforcers manhandled Ashok Dulal when he was taking photographs of them stopping a tourist vehicle near the police post.
They had also tried to pounce upon his camera to take the memory card but police intervened and escorted him to his office at Thapathali after keeping him inside the police post for a while.
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