No major incidents during Nepal bandh

Himalayan News Service
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Kathmandu, September 16

The Nepal bandh called by the Maoists on Monday passed off peacefully throughout the country except for a few minor incidents. No major incidents occured as such, because of said no major incidents took place thanks to because of the "mobilisation of maximum security forces.

Security forces deployed in every corner of Kathmandu were on high alert throughout the day. A majority of the shops were closed and no public transport was available. Only a few rickshaws, motorbikes and tempos plied.

With public transport almost nil, people faced hard times walking all the way to offices in the hot sun. Most of the private business and schools remained closed on Monday.

Police arrested a Maoist suspect at Minbhawan at 6 am on Monday. Pandey said he was arrested while trying to flee after placing a bomb on the road.

According to reports coming from different parts of the country, most of the cities remained closed throughout the country while some places saw no impact of the bandh.

The Maoists exploded two bombs at Maiswari and Thimi and one in Gwarko on Monday morning. However, the explosions caused no damage.

Life in Hetauda was paralysed the whole day with schools, colleges and shops closed and public transport at a standstill. The bandh had very little impact in Myagdi with short-route vehicles plying the streets as usual. The Maoists, on Sunday night, exploded a bomb at a cinema theatre causing minor damage.

Likewise, the bandh had a mixed impact in Nuwakot. Few markets in the district were open while the long route buses did not operate.

Police constable Hem Nath Thapaliya was killed when a bomb exploded at the Sindupalchowk district jail, on Sunday night.

Meanwhile, Maoists killed Krishna Prasad Sapkota, CPN-UML leaderin Rayale VDC of Kavre district, on Monday at Darimkot, Kusadevi. He was kidnapped on Sunday night by Maoists from his home.

Likewise, according to a Home Ministry press release, Shiva Pariyar was killed and two others injured when a socket bomb hurled at a taxi registered Ga. 1. Ja 892 exploded in Hyangja VDC of Kaski district on Monday.

Pariyar and those injured were sitting in their courtyard near the road.

The Maoists, who had been waging a "People's War" since the last six years, had called Monday's bandh with a view to paralysing normal life disrupting the election process.

Arrest denied

KATHMANDU: At the Tribhuvan International Airport (TIA) on Monday security staff arrested a person with a bomb strapped on his back,according to eyewitnessess. The approximately 20-year-old was trying to enter the terminal with a suspected "suicidal" bomb. Eyewitnesses say the person was arrested when security personnel saw a wire coming out of the collar of his shirt. However, the Home Ministry denied the incident.

3 ultras shot as killing, bomb blasts continue

Himalayan News Service
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Kathmandu, September 15

Security forces shot dead three Maoists and a suspicious individual and rounded up eight rebels in separate incidents across the country during the last 24 hours, the defence ministry said.

Two ultras were killed todav in Bardadevi, Achham and one in Chulachuli in the Jhapa-Ilam border area.

A search team in Ankhisalla, Dhankuta retaliated to Maoist fire, killing a suspicious individual.

The rebels set off two powerful bombs. One hit the Nepal Telecommunications Corporation transmission exchange.

The other bomb was targeted at the mobile telephone exchange at Parwanipur in Bara district last night.

The telephone exchange, established at a cost of nearly Rs 10 crore suffered extensive damage, said chief of Nepal Telecommunication Corporation's (NTC) regional directorate Bacchuraim Shrestha, reported RSS.

Radio Nepal's FM relay station based in the NTC office building at Parwanipur was also damaged

in the explosion.

The station however resumed transmission following repairs this evening.

But telephone servicesw in Nijgadh, Chandranigahapur, Siimara, Parwanipur and Jitpur in Bara, Parsa and Rautahat districts were affected as a result of the bomb explosion.

The rebels also set off blasts in various places in Bara, including Simara and Pathalaiya.

In Ilam district last night they murdered Lekhnath Chapagain, a 60-year-oid resident of Nasaling who was kidnapped by a group ofnearly 50 people.

Chapagain was beheaded last night and the torso was found near his house, police said.