Birgunj/Jhapa, August 16

Life was hit hard on Sunday on the first day of the two-day Nepal bandh called by Mohan Baidhya-led CPN-Maoist and ethnic and Madhesi parties.

Maoists, ethnic and Madhesi parties had enforced the two-day bandh to protest the six-province federal model with boundaries.

Long and short route buses stayed off the roads on the East-West Highway and Mahendra Highway. Educational institutions, factories, market places, and businesses pulled down their shutters due to the nationwide general shutdown.

Bandh enforcers vandalised a government vehicle belonging to Birgunj Dry Port. Security personnel had escorted the vehicle to the dry port. The agitators descended on the streets from early morning and staged rallies at Maisthan, Ghantaghar, Murli, Nagawa, Powerhouse, Chhapkaiya, Parwanipur, Himal Iron, among other places in Birgunj.

Bandh organisers vandalised a bus at Narayangadh. A group of people riding motorbikes vandalised the vehicle and fled.

As many as five trucks and one motorbike were vandalised in Hetauda for defying the bandh. Police arrested four persons for vandalism.

Agitators vandalised two trucks, including one that had met with an accident, and a motorbike at Basa of Tilakpur VDC in Nawalparasi.

Rabilal Gurung, 44, from Lamjung Tarkhughat, driver of the truck that met with an accident died while being rushed for treatment, police said. Truck Entrepreneurs’ Association, however, claimed that the driver Rabilal died after agitators attacked him when the truck met with an accident.

Likewise, protesters burned tyres and staged demonstration at various places of Rautahat including Gaur, Garuda, Shivnagar, Sukdev Chowk, Malahi Samanpur and Katahari. Bandh enforcers took out a rally in Kalaiya. Madhes-based parties’ cadres shouted slogans against the statute draft and the six-province federal model.

Sarlahi, Mahottari, Dhanusha, Siraha, Saptari, Morang and Sunsari bore the brunt of the bandh.

The eastern hilly districts of Khotang and Bhojpur also remained closed. Protesters shouted slogans in Khotang headquarters Diktel.

Buses stayed off the roads and market places, businesses and educational institutions remained shut in Bhojpur, Khotang and other districts.

The bandh crippled life in Damauli, Dumre, Khairenitar, Aanbukhaireni, Bandipur, Bhimad and Dulegaunda of Tanahun. Educational institutions and factories closed down. Vehicles belonging to the press and those carrying daily essentials and tourists, however, plied.

Meanwhile, the bandh called by Federal Limbuwan Party threw life out of gear in the east. Limbuwan had enforced bandh demanding a separate Limbuwan state comprising nine districts east of the Arun River.

Buses stayed off the roads in Jhapa, Morang, Sunsari, Taplejung, Panchthar, Ilam, Sankhuwasabha, Terhathum and Dhankuta, among others and factories, schools, and businesses pulled down their shutters.