By IINA
Kathmandu : Nepali Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala has condemned the bombing of a mosque in Biratnagarin southeast Nepal yesterday evening, saying it was an abhorrent incident, the National News Agency RSS reported today. Talking to reporters at his residence in Biratnagar this morning, Koirala said such abhorrent bombings will benefit no one and vowed not to let the bombers achieve their mission for whatever objective they might have bombed the mosque.
The bomb exploded at 7:40 p.m. (GMT 1355) near the Sarouchiya Mosque situated at Biratnagar Sub-Metropolitan City of Morang District, some 240 km southeast of the capital Kathmandu. Reports say two men on a motorcycle hurled four bombs at the mosque during evening prayers. Three of the devices exploded, and two of the people who were seriously injured died on their way to hospital. A shadowy Hindu extremist group – the Nepal Defense Army – said in a statement it carried out the attack. The group first emerged more than a year ago, saying it was fighting to preserve Nepal’s old status as a Hindu state. An indefinite curfew has been imposed in the district. Most of Nepal’s small Muslim minority live in the southern plains, where Biratnagar is situated. For many months the region has seen ethnic tensions, with numerous antagonistic factions emerging.
Prime Minister Koirala called on the families of the victims of the blast to keep restraint, promising to form a commission to probe into the incident and punish the guilty. Saying that he was committed to hold the April 10 Constituent Assembly election in free and fair manner, Koirala said terror tactics never benefit the nation and the people. He said the government has kept the doors open for talks with the armed groups in the southern Nepal’s Terai region and urged the Muslim community not to lose control by the incident. Koirala said any incident aimed at disturbing communal harmony deserved condemnation and such incidents will not weaken the morale of civil servants.