Angry activists of the Nepali Congress party yesterday stoned several vehicles for operating during a strike called in Kathmandu to protest alleged mistreatment of NC leader Girija Prasad Koirala, police said. Amid this protest, three people were killed and four seriously injured when a bus they were travelling in was blown up by a landmine in eastern Nepal, police said. The bus was heading towards Jiri, about 148km northeast of Kathmandu, when it tripped the mine, allegedly planted by Maoist rebels, on Saturday evening. The driver, his assistant and a villager were killed. The one-day general strike in the Kathmandu valley was called by NC youth bodies late on Saturday after security personnel prevented Koirala, a former prime minister, from boarding a flight to western Nepal earlier in the day. Koirala was supposed to board a Buddha Air flight to the town of Bhairahawa where he was to attend a party meeting but security personnel at the domestic terminal of the Tribhuvan International Airport turned him away, the NC claims. The chief spokesman of the Royal Nepalese Army (RNA), Rajendra Bahadur Thapa, apolgised for the incident and said it occurred because Koirala did not inform the authorities in advance that he was travelling to Bhairahawa. Almost all shops in the Kathmandu Valley were shuttered yesterday while educational institutions were closed due to the strike. "Several vehicles were damaged by the protesters yesterday morning but so far no one has been arrested," a police spokesman said. In another incident, Maoist rebels shot dead two soldiers in Butwal in southwestern Nepal Saturday and escaped with their motorcycle and two semi-machine guns, he said. **PHOTO CAPTION*** The Kalanki section of the ring road, which links to the highway outside Kathmandu, is jammed with traffic in Nepal August 25, 2004. (REUTERS)