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Kathmandu Saturday February 23, 2002 Falgun 11, 2058.
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Five burnt to death in barbaric Maoist
attack
8-year-old girl among the passengers killed
By Krishna Bhandari
CHITWAN, Feb 22: In one of the most barbaric
acts of violence, five persons, including an eight-year-old girl, were charred to death
when the Maoist terrorists hurled petrol bombs on a night bus in Chitwan, police here
said.
The Maoist terrorists stopped the night bus,
plying from Kathmandu to Birgunj, at Bhandara at 4 a.m. Friday and hurled two petrol bombs
which blew off the bus, the District Police Office (DPO) here said today.
This is the first such incident of violence
where the Maoists have targeted the innocent civilians travelling in a bus.
A group of about 10 Maoists threw petrol bombs
inside the packed bus (Na 2 Kha 4955) at Hardi area on the highway, about 25 kilometres
east of downtown Narayangadh.
Four other passengers were seriously injured in
the attack, the police said. The injured are presently undergoing treatment in the
Bharatpur Hospital. Though there were 50 people in the bus, others managed to escape
unhurt.
Those burnt to death in the brutal Maoist attack
have been identified as Kajol Alam, 8, of Betiya, India, and Jahir Hussain Ansari, Sabir
Miya Ansari, Jakir Ansari and Salman Ansari, all from Birgunj Sub-Metropolis-7 and 17,
according to the police. The police said that all the bodies were charred beyond their
recognition.
One of the travellers Asgar Ansari, an Indian
national, said that about 10 rebels forcibly stopped the bus, and set it on fire.
"They did not even allow us to get off the bus before setting the bust on fire,"
said Ansari. According to him, the bus was completely destroyed within half-an-hour
because the fire fighters could not reach the site on time.
An injured passenger said that the Maoists first
hurled petrol bombs and later doused the bus with petrol and torched it.
The bus started burning within the moment it
caught on fire and the doors of the bus were locked from outside, he said. "The
passengers could not jump off the burning bus even through the windowpanes of the
bus," said Ansari, who was literally shivering when he narrated the incident. "I
and some others, however, managed to skip off the bus by breaking the windows."
About 50 people, most of them Indian Muslims,
were returning to their homes to celebrate the Id Ul Azah, one of the important Muslim
festivals which falls on Saturday.
Meanwhile, the local administration clamped down
a dusk-to-dawn curfew in Bharatpur Municipality on Friday and Saturday to ensure safety of
the people and government’s establishments during the two-day nation-wide general
strike called by the rebels.
Meanwhile, our reporter from Biratnagar said
that a group of six rebels on Friday shot at a primary-level teacher, identified as Rewat
Tumbahamphe, at Angjugi village of Kerabari VDC-6 in Morang, the police said. Tumbahamphe
was shot dead in the premises of the school. His body was brought to the Kosi Zonal
Hospital for the post-mortem today.
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