Transport strike affects life in three districts

Himalayan News Service

Dhading, June 23:

The first day of an indefinite transportation strike called by the Maoists affected life in Dhading, Rasuwa and Nuwakot districts today. The Joint district committee of the Maoists from three districts called the strike demanding the whereabouts of their arrested and abducted cadres. In a press release on Monday, joint district committee chief, Suvash Tamang, demanded that the government make public the whereabouts of their cadres within two days. Neither private nor public vehicles plied. Vehicles plying to Kathmandu and Pokhara from here were also halted. However, private and public vehicles on Prithvi and Tribhuwan highways were more than regular. If the strike continues for long, there will be scarcity of consumer goods in the southern part of Dhading.

Though the government removed terrorist tag from the ANNISU-R, security forces have arrested two district members—Nisha Adhikary and Devaki Timilsina. The forces refused to provide any information about them. The situation of Ram Jung Tamang, the chairman of Tamang National Front, is also not known. The Maoists have demanded that the arrested be allowed to meet their families and human rights activists. According to our Nuwakot correspondent Babu Ram Lamichhane, hundreds of passengers were stranded in Rasuwa and Nuwakot, as not a single vehicle, except for security vehicles, plied today.