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| Kathmandu, Tuesday September 09, 2003 Bhadra 23, 2060. |
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1 dead, 11
injured /Full-fledged urban guerilla warfare: Police
Six explosions rock the Valley
BY BIKASH
SANGRAULA, SATYENDRA TIMILSINA, SUVECHA PANT & ARCHANA PARAJULI
KATHMANDU, Sept 8 One
schoolboy died and ten were injured in a series of explosions that rocked four public
administration offices in Kathmandu, one in Bhaktapur and one in Lalitpur. The explosions
that occurred in a matter of hours were termed by a highly placed police official as
symptomatic of full-fledged guerilla warfare mounted by the Maoists.
Responding to the panic
ensuing from the explosions, local administrations have enforced curfews in Madhyapur
Thimi, Bhaktapur and Lalitpur from 11 p.m. onwards till 4 a.m. Similarly, security
personnel have introduced additional check points at the main entry points to the capital.
A powerful bomb that
went off at 9:31 a.m. inside the restroom of the Ward No. 4 Office at Baluwatar claimed
Deepak Gurung, 12, a student of class five at the Mahendra Rastriya Secondary School
adjacent to the Ward Office. Gurung passed away while he was being rushed by security
guards of the Central Bank and schoolteachers to the Teaching Hospital, Maharajgunj.
The explosion to convey
the first warning was that at the Department of Transport Management at Ekanta Kuna,
Lalitpur. At 8:45 a.m., two unidentified individuals informed the employees present that
they had left a bomb in the office. The employees evacuated the office immediately, and
three powerful explosions shook the building.
According to Ravi Raj
Shrestha, Deputy Superintendent of Police of Lalitpur, security personnel defused two
other bombs that were planted in the building.
Half an hour later,
three bombs exploded on the ground floor, third floor and fourth-floor of the office of
Department of Survey at Kalanki. The explosions left the building, rented from Shyam
Bahadur K. C, in ruins. K. C is a former technical staff member of the Army Hospital,
Chhauni. Driver Kumar Giri and peon Amar Shrestha of the office were injured in the
incident. Eyewitness Pramila Bhandari told The Kathmandu Post that a man in a black cap
and blue jeans entered the building carrying a bag while his accomplices waited outside.
"There is bomb in
the bag; run for your life," a shaken Bhandari quoted the man as saying after he
emerged from the office. They immediately fled the place.
Meanwhile, Director Dan
Dhwoj Basnet and two employees of Labor and Employment Promotions Department in Baneshwore
were injured after a powerful cooker bomb went off on the second floor of the office at
9:20 a.m. The explosion left the furniture and filing cabinets in pieces. Basnet, who
received a serious head injury, has been admitted at Everest Nursing Home. The bomb was
planted in a toilet, according to security sources.
In what was the most
powerful explosion in Kathmandu today, the four-storied Land Revenues Office in Bhaktapur
Industrial Area shook to its foundations after a cooker bomb went off at 9:45 a.m.
"The explosion
occurred in the toilet situated on the third floor between the accounts and computers
departments," said Top Narayan Sharma, the office chief. The wall to the south of the
toilet was destroyed.
Computer operators
Chudamani Guragain, Indra Singh Samant, Rom Bahadur Malla and Govind Puri were seriously
injured while accounts officer Narayan Suwal and next-door neighbor Bishnu Maya Suwal were
slightly injured. The former four were transferred to the B & B Hospital, Teaching
Hospital and Tripureshwore Eye Hospital after preliminary treatment at Bhaktapur Hospital.
According to Sharma,
this was the third time bombs were planted at the Office. "Twice before in the span
of one year, bombs have been defused in this office," he said. The explosion also
destroyed Sharma’s official vehicle, a white Maruti with the registration plate Ba.
1. Jha 4442.
Yet another bomb went
off in the Ward 18 Office of Naradevi at 11:30 a.m. According to Secretary Babu Raja
Maharjan, two unidentified men came and placed a black plastic packet in the office,
informed it contained bombs, and left. Employees evacuated the office immediately. The
bomb went off while they were trying to contact the Police Control Room. No casualties
have been reported.
Superintendent of
Police Kuber Singh Rana of the Valley Crime Investigation Branch at Hanuman Dhoka termed
the incidents as indicative of urban guerilla warfare.
"They’ve been
targeting vital installations, public offices and VIPS. All this indicates a full-fledged
urban guerilla warfare," he said. Rana also informed that powerful cooker bombs with
timers were used in all the cases. Hundreds of individuals have been apprehended in
Kathmandu, Bhaktapur and Lalitpur in connection with the explosions.
The Nepal Human Rights
organisation has condemned the blatant attacks.
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