Nepali Congress (NC) cadres vandalized around a dozen vehicles in Kathmandu Valley including two belonging to hospitals, a tourist van and a van owned by Naya Patrika daily.

The “peaceful Nepal banda” on Monday was called to protest the death of Tarun Dal Chitwan President Shiva Poudel on Saturday.

The tourist van was vandalized at Tilganga and the two vehicles owned by hospitals, belonging to Kanti Bal Hospital were smashed at Machhapokhari and Buddhanagar, according to Nepal Police.

NC cadres resorted to vandalizing despite the party´s pledge to not harm tourist vehicles, those of health institutions, press and other most essential services.

Similarly, a white van of Naya Patrika daily was vandalized near Guna Cinema Hall, Gwarko at 9:15 in the morning.

The banda enforcers torched a Maruti van near Tilganga Bridge at six in the morning while a rental car was torched near Chabahil. Both the vehicles were completely destroyed by the fire. Likewise, a passenger microbus was vandalized in Balkumari while a Tata mobile was vandalized in Gwarko.

The police detained 29 banda enforcers from different places–17 from Thapathali, 5 from Sundhara, 4 from Tilganga, and one each from Gongabu, Hanumansthan and Balkhu. All of them were released later. The police had to fire tear gas shells to disperse crowd after NC cadres started pelting stones at Tilganga at 1:15 in the afternoon.

Meanwhile, NC, which withdrew the banda after four in the afternoon following agreement with the government, has maintained that the banda was peaceful. “It was peaceful compared to the bandas called by Maoists and CPN-UML,” argued NC General Secretary Praksah Man Singh.

Source: Republica

Photographs courtesy Republica