Six persons were injured as improvised explosive devices (IEDs) went off in two polling centres in Nawalparasi district during the second phase of federal parliament and provincial assembly elections on Thursday.

The explosions occurred while the voters were in queue to cast their ballots. An unidentified group detonated an IED at Raja Mahatma Secondary School in Panchanagar of Bardaghat Municipality. Five persons were injured in the incident, said police. Following minor treatment at local health facilities, the injured cast vote and returned home. 

Rabin Chapagain, a local who witnessed the incident, said the IED was planted inside a can hidden under a heap of sand.

The injured are receiving treatment at local health facilities. They are out of danger. A huge number of security personnel were deployed in the area following the blast.

Similarly, an IED went off at Divyajyoti Basic School in Devchuli Municipality-12. One Indra Bahadur Nepali sustained minor injuries in the blast.

The voting was halted for an hour following the blast but it subsequently resumed. Police suspected the miscreants might have planted the bomb on the school premises a few days before the elections.

Chief District Officer Sambhu Marasini along with the chief of security agencies had reached the incident site to take stock of the situation. Voters, who had fled the election centre following the blast, returned later to cast their ballot.

In Sunsari, an IED went off near a polling centre at Dharan-based Chandra Sanskrit Secondary School. The IED exploded near the polling centre but there were no casualties, said police. The voting process continued without any hitch.

In Dang, IEDs were detonated at Doghare and Pratapkot polling centres in Tulsipur. There was no damage in both the incidents. 

Likewise in Makwanpur, unidentified groups detonated IEDs targeting the ballot boxes while being brought to Hetauda, the district headquarters. The assailants hurled explosives at the team of election officials and security personnel at Manahari-2. A police van was damaged in the incident but there were no casualties, said DSP Dilipraj Jha.

An IED was detonated at Manahari-1 targeting the election officials who were ferrying the ballot boxes. The ballot boxes are safe in both the incident, police said.

Similarly in Salyan, unidentified groups detonated more than two dozen IEDs near a polling centre in Bagchaur Municipality-9 since Wednesday night. Despite the continuous blasts, the local people exercised their voting rights on Thursday.

IEDs were recovered from three separate locations in Syangja district. Police fired warning shots into the air after an altercation between the cadres of left alliance and ‘democratic’ alliance in Tulsibhanjyang of Syangja district.

Refugee camps sealed off for 24 hrs for polls

Authorities in Jhapa and Morang proscribed Bhutanese refugees in Jhapa and Morang from venturing outside their camps for 24 hours, from 5 pm Wednesday till the second phase of general elections completed at 5pm Thursday.

Police in Jhapa said the regulation was enforced as part of election security arrangement, in coordination with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). 

Tikaram Rasaili, secretary of the camp management committee in Beldangi, Jhapa, said they had been notified not to go out of their camps for 24 hours.  There were two voting stations were set up close to the Beldangi camp.

(With inputs from our local correspondents)