By Sudeshna Sarkar, IANS
Kathmandu : A business pressure group has called a one-day traders’ strike in the Kathmandu Valley Sunday to protest the murder of an Indian woman after she and her husband were attacked here.
Roshan Gupta, a resident of Sitamarhi district in India’s Bihar state, and his wife Kiran ran the Pashupati Shoe Makers shoe shop in Kathmandu, the police said.
The couple were said to have been receiving extortion calls. When they refused to pay, an unidentified armed group attacked them Friday evening, officials said.
The assault took place in the New Road area, one of the busiest commercial pockets in the capital with a large number of Indian businesses.
Kiran, 35, was stabbed to death while her 38-year-old husband also received injuries. His condition is stable, the police said.
This is the second fatal attack on an Indian businessman.
About two months ago, another Bihar resident was stabbed to death in Bhaktapur city during a night attack on the goldsmith’s shop in which he worked.
Late last year, an Indian schoolboy was found strangled to death, allegedly by his mother’s brother who, the police said, faked a kidnap.
The Nepal Chamber of Commerce called a strike in the Kathmandu Valley Sunday to urge the government to ensure better security for businessmen.
Since the fall of King Gyanendra’s authoritarian regime in 2006 and the coming to power of a coalition government, crime has increased exponentially in the border towns and the capital itself, once regarded as the most secure place in the country.