Fewer vehicles have been plying on the roads due to the strike called by 15 student unions demanding the government withdraw the recent hike in prices of petroleum products. Educational institutes and market places have also remained shut.

Banda enforcers set fire to a bus (Ba 2 Kha 897) at old bus park in the Capital and vandalised a micro bus (Ba 2 Kha 2835) at Minbhawan this morning, police informed.

Police has detained around four dozen banda enforcers, including president of All Nepal National Independent Students Union-Revolutionary, Himal Sharma, from Kathmandu and Lalitpur.

SSP Hemanta Pal at Metropolitan Police Commissioner's Office, Ranipokhari, said the arrestees were forcefully enforcing banda at different places in the Capital. "Security has been provided to the private and public vehicles operating on the road," said Pal.

Meanwhile, Nepali Congress affiliated Nepal Students Union and CPN-UML aligned National Free Students Union (ANNFSU) have withdrawn their support to the general strike.

The students unions resorted to the strike after several rounds of talks with the government failed. Lawmakers of opposition parties also disrupted the Legislature-Parliament on Tuesday to protest against the rise in prices of petroleum products.

The hike in prices of petroleum products has caused a chain-reaction in the market, thereby increasing the prices of other goods.