I've only been here two weeks...
... but I know what it means when the distinctive "you've got a text message" chime wakes me up - it's Banda time, baby!
In practical terms, this means I won't be able to make it to work, since it's needlessly provocative for me to try to run the blockades. It means that my long-delayed haircut gets delayed a little longer, since the shops will be closed. Food will be a little more difficult to acquire - I'll have to eat in the hotel restaurant, methinks. And, oh yeah, I'm going to go out and get some snazzy photos. It's just 7 AM, and I hear whooping crowds from the direction of Lazimpat, the nearest major street. Don't worry, they've no problem with photographers - helps to publicize the cause.
Yesterday I wandered through the mob that constituted the embryonic phase of this banda, which is called to protest (?) the as-yet unexplained deaths of two 15-year-olds, likely by nefarious means, on the outskirts of town. As I rode my bicycle home from work in suspiciously sparse traffic, I saw with curiousity that other cyclists were dismounting and walking their bicycles. It seemed wise to do the same, and shortly I came upon a nearly empty intersection normally swarming with taxis and tuk-tuks. A swarm of perhaps a hundred youths roamed the street, none visibly older than 15 (though it's hard to tell, in a country where malnutrition masks age very convincingly). They carried makeshift banners, photos of the two dead boys, and they accosted anyone disrespectful enough to drive a car or motorcycle through the bare street. I couldn't understand these conversations, but I infer that the protestors demanded the drivers show the banda the proper respect by walking home. Those who refused and tried to drive on had to dodge a rain of fist-sized chunks of masonry (none of which connected with anything fleshy, so far as I saw). A few plumes of black smoke that I (correctly, as it turns out) took to be the product of burning tires rose a few blocks away. Once safely clear of the mob, I slowly, and respectfully remounted my bike, like many other commuters, and enjoyed a remarkably smooth ride home on a street nearly devoid of traffic.
Oddly, about 30 minutes later, when I'd grabbed my camera from the hotel, life seemed to have resumed its normal pace. Traffic had returned and there was no mention of the riot. And yet, it appears that yesterday was the rehearsal - today we see a full-blown city shutdown. Photos and eyewitness accounts to follow.
2 comments:
I gather a section of the party in power did it. - and that there is a power struggle between the current pm and hardliners led by Mohan Vaidya.
From a newspaper:
Valley braces for another bandh Himalayan News Service Kathmandu, November 27:
Traffic remained disrupted at different parts of the Valley since early this morning following the protest by locals and relatives of two missing youths, whose bodies were found in a forest at Thankot yesterday.
The youths went missing on November 15. More than 12 people, including five policemen, were hurt during the agitation. The protesters vandalised two ambulances and a police van. The windowpanes of the Metropolitan Police Circle office at Kalimati were also smashed.
“If the government doesn’t fulfil our demands, we will call a Valley bandh
tomorrow,” threatened Shree Prasad Manandhar, coordinator, ad-hoc struggle committee, which has been formed by the civil society.
Manandhar, father of slain Ashish, said that the committee would hold talks with the Home Minister and Prime Minister tomorrow morning. The government has formed a panel, headed by SSP Birendra Babu Shrestha, chief, Metropolitan Police Crime Division,
to investigate into the incident. The panel has been asked to submit its report
within a week.
The ad-hoc struggle committee submitted a memorandum to Chief District Officer, Kathmandu, and AIG Ramesh Shrestha today. It demanded the government to book the culprits immediately and ensure law and order in the country.
The family members of the slain youths have refused to accept their bodies till the police arrest the murderers.
Meanwhile, Kathmandu district chapters of Private and Boarding Schools’, Nepal and National Private and Boarding Schools’ Association of Nepal have urged private school authorities to close all institutions in the Valley tomorrow to mourn the death of the youths.
It's good to see that no matter where you live, a protest isn't legit unless there are burning tires involved. And they say there's no such thing as an international language.
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