KATHMANDU: A group of trade union workers today thrashed Ravi Shankar Pokharel, a staffer of APCA Nepal, exclusive marketer of The Himalayan Times and Annapurna Post, for defying a strike call though he showed them his Press identity card. Pokharel was going from Kalimati to the Department of Industries in Tripureshwor for an official purpose during a three-hour chakkajam. Pokharel’s assailants were wearing All Nepal Trade Union, Soaltee, caps. “When I was about to enter the gate of the department they started hurling stones towards me, punched me and turned their wrath on my motorbike,” Pokharel said. “Some of them knew me and tried to protect me,” Pokharel said. They said they did not care whether the person violating the bandh was from a newspaper or not. All they wanted was to make their strike a success.