Gayatri Adhikari and her friend Gyanu Humagain never imagined they would end up in a hospital after they set out to meet their parents on the afternoon of 3 April, the third day of the anti-regression street demonstration organised by the five parties. The two were caught in a police latthi charge. The blows kept falling despite protestations that they were government employees not involved in the rally. All Gayatri, 48, remembers is walking from Maiti Devi to Putali Sadak. She woke up with a wounded eye at Bir Hospital, surrounded by doctors and her husband. Gyanu was also taken to a hospital by passers by. Bisnu Tamang, another pedestrian, had her nose broken by the police.

Some demonstrators were drinking alcohol while chanting anti-regression slogans, provoking the police by shouting at them and breaking through no-entry street barriers. These instances led the police to attack those in the rallies. Congress leader Jagdish Singh KC himself showed a remarkable lack of restraint by lobbing bricks at the police. But ordinary people in the city, those who have places to go, were caught in the fracas. Shyam Maharjan was obviously in mourning with his white clothes. He was on his way to his mother's funeral on his bike when the demonstrators grabbed his key and accused him of obstructing the five-party banda. He was already depressed and had little energy to justify his action. Eventually, they let him go.

Meanwhile, many joined in the demonstrations without knowing what it was all about. A group of porters carried flags and shouted slogans-their demand was for the government to reduce the price of salt and oil!