But the indefinite nation-wide general strike called by the Unified Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) from Sunday and the efforts of canceling grade 12 exams by the party´s students made matters worse for the 78-year-old from Gaindakot, Nawalparasi.[break]
Her sons called an ambulance early in the morning as she had a nine o´clock appointment with the doctor in Bharatpur. “But the ambulance was busy due to the strike and expressed inability to come,” her son Tilak Prasad said.
The two brothers then carried their mother till the highway and then paid an inflated fare to the rickshaw-puller to take her to Om Hospital in Bharatpur. Tilak Prasad put his younger sister Sita in the rickshaw with mother and rode along with his younger brother on a bicycle.
Just when they were about 300 meters away from the hospital, tensions flared between the pro-Maoist students and the police sparking a clash. The rickshaw puller refused to go forward even as the police were firing tear gas shells and the students were pelting stones.
Her sons led her to a shade nearby but the clash intensified and tear gas shells started to drop near her. Her eyes had to bear the brunt while there was also threat of being hit by stones.
The students and police were clashing in both the streets leading to the hospital and the children had no option other than taking their mother back to home. “She has been severely affected by heart disease for the past four years. The doctor had called today but we couldn´t take her even on a rickshaw,” her daughter Sita rued.
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