By IANS
Kathmandu : Five days after serial blasts killed three women here, a bomb was found in the parking lot of a school in south Nepal Friday marking the start of a psychological terror war.
A crude bomb was found in the parking lot of the Kadamvari Academy Boarding School in the border town of Birgunj in Parsa district Friday morning.
Birgunj police told IANS that school authorities had received a phone call, telling them about the bomb.
A police team rushed to the spot around 9 a.m. and defused the crude bomb. There was no damage.
The new bomb alert comes a day after police released the sketch of a man suspected of planting one of the three bombs in a crowded minibus Sunday that killed a 56-year-old woman passenger.
The identikit picture showed a square-faced youngish man with thick hair and a moustache.
The government formed a five-member team headed by additional inspector general of police Keshav Prasad Baral to investigate Sunday’s serial blasts targeting crowded areas in the capital.
Baral said the three bombs, one of which was hidden under a seat in a bus stand, and another kept under a seat in a minibus, comprised about 1.5 kg gelatine packed into metal containers. The bombs were detonated with a delayed action time switch that allowed the perpetrators to synchronise the time of the blasts and put a safe distance between them and the bomb.
“There will be eyewitnesses,” Baral said. “Someone will have seen the men buying the containers or carrying them or planting them. There would be traces of explosive in the rooms where the bombs were made. Hotel, lodge and guest house owners should watch out for that or other suspicious devices when cleaning rooms.”
The perpetrators also left a trail of mobile phone numbers from where they had made calls to journalists to claim responsibility for the blasts.
However, till Thursday, police had not been able to make any arrests.
Meanwhile, the army and the Maoists crossed swords over Sunday’s tragedy.
The Maoists are alleging that the army had a hand in the attacks following orders given by royalists who want to sabotage a critical election in November that will put the monarchy to vote for the first time.
The Maoist mouthpiece, the Janadesh weekly, Tuesday wrote that Crown Prince Paras had schemed the blasts. It also said a Nepal Army soldier, who was injured in the third blast that occurred near the army headquarters, was responsible for it.
Reacting to the allegations, the army said that it was farfetched and well-planned propaganda to tarnish the image of its soldiers who were dedicated to the nation and public service and were obeying all the conditions of the peace pact on the orders of the government.