Kathmandu, Dec 21 (IANS) Over 300 pilgrims, in their 70s and more, have been stranded in a border town near India due to the three-day general strike called by Nepal’s former Maoist guerrillas that has kept the country paralysed since Sunday.
The Nepali pilgrims, packed in seven buses, were returning to Nepal after visiting various pilgrimage sites in India when they were hit by the disruption.

The buses have been stopped by Maoist protesters at the Bhairahawa border entry point in Nepal after they reached there from India’s Uttar Pradesh state.

Caught between the strike and growing cold, the elderly men and women, forced to spend the night in the bus, are in bad shape, private television station Avenues Television reported Tuesday.

The TV station said local human rights workers were urging the district administration to provide armed escort to the convoy of buses and allow the pilgrims to return home.

Nepal’s Maoists, who are now the largest party in the country following an election last year, have called a three-day general strike since Sunday, demanding action against President Ram Baran Yadav, who prevented their short-lived government from sacking the chief of the army for insubordination and caused the collapse of the government.