KATHMANDU. May 4: Some 300 activists were arrested and at least 15 injured Thursday as the extreme leftist Uni-K-d People s Front (UPF) sta->i । general strike in Kath in i.kIu Valley, party president Piiiuplia Bhusal told AFP.

Tlie strike called to protest against the policies of the ruling Nepal Communist Party United Marxist and Leninist (NCP-UML). has affected work in government offices, factories. schools and colleges witnesses said.

Bhusal said police resorted to baton charges and injured more than 15 activists. Seven of the injured were admitted to hospital and three are in serious condition, she said adding that some 300 activists were arrested.

But a central police source saitl only 60 were held and denied any baton charge by police.

The NCP-UML government deployed police and army per sonnet to guard hospitals, post offices and telecommunications offices, witnesses said.

More than 80 per cent of shops in major markets were shut.

Most vehicles were kept off the roads to ward oft attacks by strikers and miscreants. Only state run buses and trolley buses were plying.

The UPF called the strike in three cities in the Kathmandu Valley — Kathmandu. Lalitpur and Bhaktapur — to press the government to abrogate a 1950 treaty with India, among other things a

party source said.

Prime Minister Man Mohan Adhikari visited New Delhi last month to discuss the issue and said that India was willing to review ft.

The treaty Is widely seen here as giving India political leverage over Nepal. It allows nationals of the two.countries to seek Jobs and cross the border without visas.

The treaty calls for extensive cooperation between the iwo countries in defence matters but Nepal has complained that New Delhi did not inform Kathmandu of past conflicts with China and Pakistan.

The 1950 Indo-Nepal Treaty, which is obsolete now. has forced Nepal to become India s semi-colony, said UPF convener Baburam Bhattarai.