By Sudeshna Sarkar
Kathmandu, Dec 6 (IANS) Thousands of people across Nepal, including hundreds of Indians, were left in dire straits as the Maoists went on a fresh vandalising spree Sunday to enforce a stringent general strike after at least seven people were killed in a western village following clashes between landless squatters and security forces.

Hundreds of Indian labourers and travellers between India and Nepal who use the open border between the two countries to make regular journeys for their livelihoods, medical treatment or visit relatives, were left stranded in border towns like Nepalgunj and Biratnagar as the former Maoist guerrillas shut down the country on less than 24 hours’ notice.

Hotels on the India-Nepal border were brimming with travellers while those unable to afford the unexpected expense began a grim journey on foot carrying children and baggage. Only a few cycle rickshaws cruised the empty streets purged of traffic.

Maoist cadre, who began patrolling key towns from the morning, including the capital, burnt tyres on highways, sat in the middle of the roads and in places, attacked unwary vehicles to trigger a fear psychosis.

Nearly two dozen vehicles had been set ablaze or vandalised by the former rebels who also attacked medical shops that had dared remain open as well as the party office of their former leader and member of parliament Matrika Prasad Yadav in Udaypur.

Yadav, once the seniormost Maoist leader in the Terai plains, has left the Maoists to form his own splinter group.

In Kathmandu, despite the concentration of security forces, Maoists vandalised nearly a dozen vehicles, demanding the resignation of Home Minister Bhim Rawal, blaming him for the violence that erupted in remote Kailali district Friday.

The government rushed thousands of police and armed police personnel to Dudhejhari forest in Kailali’s Baliya village where police had begun a demolition drive Friday to remove thousands of homeless people who had moved in after being displaced by floods and landslides.

An estimated 15,000 people were living in nearly 4,000 shanties in the forest since last month. The squatters belong to the Dalit community, who are among the most disadvantaged in Nepal and still considered untouchable by traditionalists though on paper Nepal has abolished untouchability.

Police said they began demolishing the shacks after all the major parties, including the Maoists, had approved of the decision.

But the drive was resisted by the squatters who fought back with bricks, bamboo poles and knives and axes, killing a constable. As security forces opened fire in retaliation, at least six squatters were killed, including a woman, Nepal’s official media said.

At least 50 people were injured, including three police personnel, one of whom had to be rushed to Lucknow in India for critical medical treatment.

In Kathmandu, the Maoist leadership reacted to the incident by announcing a shutdown nationwide Sunday.

The government blamed the Maoists for the violence, saying they had instigated it.

The home minister called a press conference in the middle of the strike Sunday to accuse the opposition party of going against the peace pact it had signed three years ago pledging to renounce violence.

Nepal’s parliament, also under siege by the Maoists since the fall of their government in May, could not sit Sunday, raising fresh fears whether it would be able to promulgate a new constitution by May 2010.

In Kailali, the demolition was completed with the shacks pulled down and set on fire.

Krishna Poudel, the chief district officer, said the situation was under control Sunday and a meeting between the major parties, including the Maoists, had been called to defuse the tension.

The violence comes close on the heels of Nepal’s government grabbing world headlines by holding a cabinet meeting in the Everest region Friday where Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal promised to increase the forest cover in Nepal.

The general strike comes ahead of a trade and transport strike called by the trade union of the Maoists Wednesday and a three-day general strike from Dec 20.