SIRAHA: Lahan bazaar today came to a standstill due to a bandh called by locals protesting the administration’s failure to release 12-year-old Suvash Shah, who was abducted four days ago. Yesterday, the Federation of Nepalese Chambers of Commerce and Industry, Lahan, had given a 24-hour ultimatum to the administration for the release of the child. Owing to the bandh, the entire market place in Lahan remained shut. Sunil Mahato, first vice-chairman, FNCCI, Lahan, said in a press release that they were compelled to enforce the bandh as the incidents of abduction were rising in Lahan and the adjoining areas. They lamented that the police had failed to curb such incidents. Though Chief District officer Birendra Yadav had assured all possible efforts to set the abducted Shah free in a meeting with representatives of the FNCCI, Lahan, the representatives of the Federation had warned of enforcing the bandh for an indefinite period until the boy was released safely. After the abduction of Shah, a fourth grader at Sharada Residential Higher Secondary School in Lahan, locals have been terrorised. Murari Prasad Shah, president, PABSON, Siraha, said that school students have been living under the shadow of terror and fear following Shah’s abduction. In protest against the abduction of the school kid, residential schools in Lahan and its vicinity will remain shut till April 18. Garib Shah, father of the abducted kid, said that abductors had demanded a ransom of Rs 5 million for the release of his son. “They have threatened to kill my son if their demand is not met,” Shah said. According to him, the abductors have said that they had already spent half a million rupees for the abduction in collusion with the local police administration. So, they have said paying ransom was necessary as pressing the police administration would not help in the release.