By Xinhua,
Kathmandu : Nepali police have shot dead Kaushal Sahani, known as “Mr. John”, the chief of an underground armed outfit Terai Army.
Sahani along with his bodyguard were shot dead by police in Raghunathpur area of Rautahat district on Friday night, local leading news website Nepalnews.com reported on Saturday.
Sahani has been accused of masterminding several explosions in the capital and elsewhere in the country in the past.
The so-called “Terai Army”, which was relatively active in southern Nepal’s Terai region, once claimed to take the responsibility for the serial bomb explosions which killed at least two persons and injured more than two dozen in the capital Kathmandu in last September.
Prior to this, the group also reportedly claimed responsibility for bomb blasts in Rautahat District, some 110 km south of Nepali capital Kathmandu.
In mid-May, at least 14 people were injured, one of them critically, when the group had detonated a bomb at a busy local market in Chandranigahapur in Rautahat district.
Armed groups such as Terai Army are actively involved in targeted killings and kidnapping in southern Nepal demanding separate state for Madhesi people in Terai region.
Madhesi community living mostly in Terai plains of southern Nepal is considered to be the people with close Indian origin.