Thousands of people, including the disabled, sick and children, were left stranded on the highways leading to Kathmandu valley as Nepal’s former Maoist guerrillas yesterday enforced a blockade to press their demand for a new government even as the ruling alliance warned the siege was against the peace pact.
Lines of trucks laden with essential commodities from India ground to a halt near Nagdhunga, the main entry point to Kathmandu valley from India, while the former insurgents fanned out to five more entry points to cut off all incoming and outgoing traffic for a day.
Sankhu, Sanghabyanjang, Okharpauwa, Chobar and Pharping were also shut down by cadres bearing red flags and shouting slogans against the government and President Ram Baran Yadav, whom the Maoists are blaming for the fall of their eight-month-old government in May.
Though the Maoist leadership said the protest intended to cut off all traffic to and from Kathmandu valley for a day, zealous supporters took the blockade to Dhading district outside Kathmandu where school buses were halted at Naubise, forcing young children to trek to their school.
Inside the valley however, Maoist deputy chief Narayan Kaji Shrestha said there would be no obstruction.
Educational institutions, government offices, shops and markets and the valley’s internal traffic would be allowed to continue as usual, Shrestha said.
The former guerrillas had called off their proposed blockade of Nepal’s only international airport, which was also scheduled for yesterday, after the representatives of 12 western governments met Maoist chief Prachanda and expressed concern.
The envoys pointed out that the obstruction of the Tribhuvan International Airport in Kathmandu - which would cause hardship to thousands of visitors - would create a negative image of Nepal in the eyes of the world and impact the republic’s economy.
The Maoists, now the largest party in parliament following a thumping victory in last year’s election, began fresh protests against the coalition government of Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal this month demanding an apology from the president, who reinstated the chief of the army after the latter was fired by the Maoist government earlier this year.
They are also demanding the dissolution of the 22-party government and the formation of a new one under their leadership.
Besides the street protests, which have paralysed the government machinery, the former insurgents have also kept up a siege on parliament, not allowing it to convene.
Prachanda has predicted that the turmoil would end and a new government formed within this week.
Political analysts feel the developments could take a new direction after the chief of the current ruling party, the Communist Party of Nepal-Unified Marxist Leninist (UML), returns to Nepal.
UML chief Jhalanath Khanal went to New Delhi last week to hold consultations with Indian leaders and senior officials.
Meanwhile, Information and Communications Minister Shankar Pokhrel, who is also the spokesman of the coalition government, warned the former rebels that the blockade went against the peace pact signed three years ago that allowed the Maoists to emerge from the jungles and join mainstream politics.
On Monday, a regional wing of the former rebels violated the accord yet again when it announced the formation of an autonomous state in eastern Nepal.
The ruling parties say that since a new constitution, to be promulgated in May 2010, would decide how the republic would be restructured, any move by the Maoists to declare autonomous states on their own constitutes a severe blow to the peace process. IANS
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