The traffic movement of Kathmandu valley has been affected on Wednesday due to the protest of taxi drivers organized to oppose murder of one taxi driver by an unidentified group and the convention of the Maoist-affiliated All Nepal Trade Union Federation (ANTUF).

Rallies preceding the convention at different locations of Kathmandu affected traffic in all the three districts of the valley.

The ANTUF had also requested the transport entrepreneurs to stay off the road for the convention.

Few private and government vehicles including cycles and motorcycles did ply the thoroughfares. People were facing difficulty due to less traffic movement in the valley.

Some vehicles plying in the street were carrying Maoist cadres to the convention.

In the morning, taxi drivers disrupted the traffic movement by burning tyres in various parts of the capital including Kalanki, Minbhawan, Lagankhel and Kalopul.

One taxi driver Chuda Mani Thapa was stabbed by an unidentified armed group on Monday night at Koteshwor.

Eyewitnesses said the assailants fled after looting money from the deceased.

On Tuesday, the agitating drivers obstructed traffic movement along Ratnapark-Durbar Marg section of the road by parking several dozen taxis in the middle of the road. They also publicly displayed the body of late Thapa on a vehicle.

The agitating taxi drivers demanded a compensation of Rs. 500,000 to the victim’s family and to immediately arrest the persons involved in the incident.

The Nepal Taxi Drivers’ Union said that the protests will continue unless the government provides Rs. 500,000 in compensation to Thapa’s family in addition to slapping life sentence to his killers.