Kathmandu, March 6 -- When Bhimdev Shrestha and his seven friends were arrested in Balaju for protesting against a road-widening drive, his mother 97-year-old Sanumaya Shrestha was bedridden.

Bhimdev, one of the victims of the government's road-widening campaign at Balaju, Bypass, was released this week. But the bulldozing of houses in his neighbourhood has left deep mental scars on its residents, including Sanumaya, who can't speak.

"It's been a year since my grandmother lost her speech," said Suman, son of 42-year-old Bhimdev. "As she was on the balcony on the second floor of our two-and-half-storey house when the government started demolishing the house," he added. "She has been ill for the past four years now...she cries every time ...