KATHMANDU: Police in Nepal arrested 38 protesters on Sunday for trying to enf­orce a strike against neighbouring India, which is accu­sed of orchestrating a weeks-long border blockade that has caused crippling fuel shortages.

Many shops were closed in the capital Kathmandu and traffic was thin on the roads after the strike called by a small hardline opposition Communist party.

“We have arrested 38 people for trying to block roads and vandalise vehicles,” pol­ice spokesman Kamal Singh Bam said. Protests at the border over Nepal’s new constitution have led to crippling fuel shortages in the landlocked Himalayan nation, while medicines are also running short.

Nepal is heavily dependent on giant India for fuel and other supplies, but little cargo has crossed their main checkpoint since protests broke out in late September.

Movement across other border checkpoints has also slowed to a crawl, prompting Nepal’s government to accuse India — which has criticised the new constitution — of retaliating with an “unofficial blockade”.

Published in Dawn, November 30th, 2015