Thaindian News

Kathmandu, Dec 19 (IANS) Nearly a dozen government vehicles were vandalised and torched in front of a college campus in Kathmandu valley Friday as students went on a rampage to show their anger with the Maoist-led government.Young men and women smashed car screens, tried to wrench off doors and bounced up and down on roofs of cars parked in front of the Engineering Campus at Thapathali and battled police in riot gear to continue their destructive activities.

The protesters belonged to the youth wing of former prime minister Girija Prasad Koirala’s Nepali Congress, now the main opposition party.

The incident created tension in the area, disrupting traffic and creating obstructions for pedestrians.

The hooliganism was the sequel to a clash with their rivals, the student wing of the Maoists, in the Pashupati campus in Chabahil Thursday, which turned violent after the Maoist students were allegedly backed by the Young Communist League, the powerful arm of the Maoists, that is believed to be a makeover of the guerrilla army.

The violence comes after the Nepali Congress began a boycott of parliament Thursday, saying it would keep up the protest till Maoist Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal Prachanda lived up to his pledges, including ordering his cadre to vacate the public properties they had captured during the 10-year Maoist insurgency.