A protest called by the transporters against Maoist threats closed down marketplaces and brought the vehicular traffic to a halt in Janakpur Bazaar on Thursday.

The protesting transport entrepreneurs associated with Janakpur Zonal Bus Entrepreneurs’ Committee took out a rally and shouted slogans against the Maoists for harassing them, reports said.

The transporters said the Maoists tried to abduct the chairman of the committee, Shyam Sundar Choudhari, on Sunday and they had also been pressuring the members to cancel the election of the committee.

Likewise, in the western town of Pokhara, a strike was called by transporters in protest against the manhandling of a truck driver after his truck hit a pedestrian last evening at Srijana Chowk.

Vehicular movement was disrupted in some places and shops were closed at Srijana Chowk due to the protest.

The locals had torched the truck and manhandled the driver after he allegedly tried to the kill one Som Bahadur Rai of Okhaldhunga by reversing his truck after it hit and injured him, reports said.