Nepal Student Union (NSU), student wing of the main opposition Nepali Congress (NC), has enforced bandh in Kanchanpur demanding that the authorities arrest the culprit(s) of rape and murder of 13-year-old Nirmala Panta at the earliest.

Vehicles in Mahendranagar Bazaar and other parts of the district have stayed off the road. Students have vandalised the office of government lawyers. They sneaked into the office and also manhandled the staffers at the office. 

The students have obstructed the vehicles by burning tyres in main chowks of the highway and shutdown markets since this morning.

“Our demand is to find out the culprit(s) by making public the report of a high-level probe committee,” NSU central member Kailash Chand said, adding, “We have obstructed the vehicles and shut down markets and educational institutions from 7 am to 5 pm today.”

The NSU had also closed all the educational institutions of the district on Monday also.

Chand said that other protest programmes will be announced after holding discussions.

Nepali migrant workers who have returned to their hometowns from India to celebrate Dashain and Tihar have been at the receiving end due to the bandh.

Jhalari bazaar along the East-West Highway has also been shutdown.

Body of Nirmala was found in a sugarcane field in Bhimdutta Municipality of Kanchanpur on July 27, a day after she was reported missing. Postmortem report showed the teenager had been raped and strangulated to death.