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Serial blasts rock Bhutan

By IANS

Thimphu : A string of explosions rocked Bhutan injuring one woman and damaging shops and businesses, officials Monday said.

A Royal Bhutan Police spokesman said there were four bomb blasts, including one in capital Thimphu, between 11 a.m. and 2 p.m. Sunday.

The other explosions took place in the districts of Samste, Chukha and Dagana.

“In all there were four explosions in which a woman was injured,” a police official said.

Bhutan’s national newspaper Kuensel reported that the first blast went off at 11.10 a.m. Sunday near a vegetable market in Samste district but there were no casualties.

“The second blast took place at 11.45 a.m. in Thimphu. The impact shattered window panes of buildings in the area and unnerved shopkeepers, residents and passers-by but no injuries were reported,” Kuensel said.

The third explosion took place at Gedu town in Chukha district in which a woman was injured. The fourth blast took place 2.10 p.m. in Dagapela area of Dagana district.

“A second explosive device, which did not go off, was found in the same area,” Kuensel said.

“A spokesman for the Royal Bhutan Police said that one of the three militant organisations based in Nepal … was suspected to be behind these blasts.”

Bhutan goes to the polls to elect its first parliament March 24.

The country had witnessed a pro-democracy agitation in the 1990s with a section of Nepali-speaking residents in its southern parts rising in revolt against the monarchy.

The crackdown that followed led thousands of Nepali-speaking people from southern Bhutan to flee to Nepal. Now an estimated 100,000 people are sheltered in relief camps.