Over 80 banda enforcers were arrested from Kathmandu Valley on Friday during a general strike called by the Samyukta Loktantrik Madhesi Morcha.

Although the effect of the shutdown was minimal in the Valley, with a considerable number of vehicles plying the roads, the enforcers were arrested on the charge of obstructing traffic. 

According to the Metropolitan Police Commissioner’s Office, Ranipokhari, 33 SLMM cadres were arrested from Kathmandu; 43 from Lalitpur while nine were rounded up in Bhaktapur. Superintendent of Police Ganesh Bahadur Aire of the MPCO said six people “spreading rumours about the banda” were also arrested. No incident of arson or vandalism was reported.

Many private and some public vehicles were seen on the roads while some schools ran their classes. The Valley saw a heavy deployment of police and Armed Police Force personnel as the general strike coincided with protests organised against the killing of a Kanchanpur local by India’s border security guards on Thursday. Gobinda Gautam had died when India’s Seema Sashastra Bal fired at Nepalis on the international border on Thursday.

Security was beefed up outside the Indian Embassy in the Capital as protesters demanding compensation for the bereaved family and a formal apology from India for the Kanchanpur incident marched towards it.

The SLMM had decided to enforce the strike in protest of the death of its cadres in police firing in Saptari on Monday. Five persons died when police opened fire at protesters after Morcha cadres tried to disrupt a CPN-UML programme in Saptari.

The SLMM had been protesting against a mass meeting of the second largest party as part of its “Mechi-Mahakali National Campaign” targeting local level elections.