Own bombs kill 4 Chand outfit members, six injured; IEDs found in several places
KATHMANDU, May 27: Four members of the outlawed Netra Bikram Chand-led Communist Party of Nepal were killed while six were seriously injured in two separate blasts in Ghattekulo and Sukedhara in the capital on Sunday afternoon. Police said the cadres of the outfit were preparing the improvised explosive devices (IEDs) for detonation during their nation-wide strike called for Monday, but the devices went off suddenly in the process of assemblage.
The outfit also carried out blasts in Chandragiri, Lagankhel and Satdobato among other places on Sunday. Police also recovered IEDs from two other places in Lalitpur.
The blast at Ghattekulo occurred at 4.30 pm when the outfit members were taking the IED out from Prajjwal Shahi’s room to take it elsewhere. Shahi died on the spot while the outfit’s student wing leader Robin KC was injured in the blast. He is being treated at Bir Hospital.
The IED blast at Sukedhara occurred ten minutes after the Ghattekulo blast, police said. The IED in Sukedhara was a ‘pressure cooker bomb’, according to police.
“Three people died in the blast in Sukedhara while the Ghattekulo blast killed one,” Shailesh Thapa Chhetri, the chief of Metropolitan Police Commissioner’s Office, said.
According to Chhetri, the blast at Sukedhara occurred inside a shuttered room near the Dhalane Pul and the blast at Ghattekulo had occurred inside a rented room.
Those killed in Sukedhara blast have yet to be identified, according to Chhetri. In the blast, Surendra Maharjan, a member of Chand-affiliated Newa Rajya Committee and another member of the Chand outfit were injured. Yet another injured has been identified as Jit Bahadur Thakur, police said.
Police have found the IED-making materials in the rented room at Sukedhara. The five people severely injured in the Sukedhara blast are currently being treated at Om Hospital, Chabahil.
In the ten months of the current fiscal year, more than 60 explosive devices have either gone off or were defused across the country.
According to the police, there were 54 cases of explosives across the nation in the previous fiscal year.Police have been repeatedly claiming that the number of bombs found across the country has been going up due to a spike in the activities of the outlawed outfit.
Following a government decision to ban the Netra Bikram Chand-led Communist Party of Nepal (CPN) on March 12, security agencies have launched a crackdown on the group and arrested more than 600 leaders and cadres of the outfit including mid central command leader Hemanta Prakash Oli.
But most of those arrested have been released on bail, according to police.