(Updated with rescue of stranded passengers NST 0905 GMT 0320)
KATHMANDU, March 7: Police have rescued more than 2,500 passengers who were stranded Bhaluwang area of Dang district, imposing a six-hour-long curfew in East-West Highway.
Two arrested with brown sugar in Surkhet
“We imposed curfew from 11 PM Friday to 5 am Saturday and escorted more than 150 vehicles stranded in the highway,” Superintendent of Police Tika Ram Sejuwal told myrepublica.com over telephone.
The passengers were heading to Kailali, Kanchanpur, Banke and Bardiya districts via Dang and stranded in Bhaluwang because of Tharu activists’ strikes.
According to Sejuwal, thousands of demonstrators have fell trees along the highways tot block vehicular movement.
The banda called by Tharus in west Nepal entered the sixth day with Surkhet and Kanchanpur also shut down since Saturday morning, said Sagarmatha TV Saturday morning. [break]
Meanwhile, some human rights activists in Banke district tried to mediate so that the stranded could be allowed easy passage but the efforts did not succeed, according to myrepublica.com correspondent Dil Bahadur Chhatyal.
"We held dialogues throughout the day but our efforts to allow passage to the passengers did not succeed," said Bhola Mahat, mid-west regional coordinator of Insec said. "The people are in precarious situation and among the stranded are children and pregnant women."
Mahat said most passengers are crying.
Although the district administration threatened to use force to free up the highway, it has not been able to come to the rescue of the passengers in the districts of Surkhet, Bardiya, Banke and Dang, among others.
The Tharus are protesting a government move to list their community as a Madhesi group.
