Four persons, including a minor, were injured when an improvised explosive device went off at a rally of the Nepali Congress at Bhaladmi Tole in Itahari Sub-metropolitan City-9 on Thursday.

One-year-old Yuwan Neupane, Samrina Adhikari, 16, Dhan Bahadur Shrestha, 50, and Gita Acharya, 40, were injured in the explosion.

According to police, 13 others, who sustained minor injuries, are receiving care at the Dharan-based BP Koirala Institute of Health Sciences and in Biratnagar.

Incidents of blast and attack on candidates and election rallies continue unchecked across the country. On Wednesday, a temporary police recruit injured in an IED blast died in Dang while an NC candidate was among seven people who were seriously hurt in another blast in Udaypur.

The explosive device was detonated near a corner meeting attended by State Minister for Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation Sumitra Devi Chaudhary at around 11:50 am. Neupane, who was playing near the stage, and Adhikari sustained shrapnel injuries in the temple while Shrestha and Acharya were injured in abdomen and leg, respectively.

Security personnel suspected that a timed IED may have been detonated. Nobody has owned up the incident so far.

Chief District Officer Gopal Prasad Parajuli said that security will be heightened as assailants even targeted small gatherings and corner meetings.

In Mugu, an IED was recovered at the house of NC federal parliament candidate

Hasta Bahadur Malla in Chhayanath Rara Municipality-1. A Nepal Army team defused the device later.

Meanwhile, an unidentified group torched a vehicle belonging to Ratan Thapa, the left alliance candidate for Kailali Constituency 2 ‘A’. The vehicle, parked at Thapa’s house in Lamkichuha Municipality, was vandalised and torched on Wednesday night, said police.

(With inputs from our local correspondents)

Udaypur explosion suspect held

Police arrested two persons in connection with the IED explosion at Dunuwarbeshi on Wednesday in which NC Udayapur-2 candidate Narayan Bahadur Karki and six others were seriously injured. Security personnel rounded up Bal Bahadur Magar and Baburam Subedi alleging their involvement in the blast. According to Superintendent of Police Nabaraj Bhatta, Magar is the CPN (Maoist Centre) activist who contested the local election in Udaypurgadhi-7 while Subedi is the district secretary of the Netra Bikram Chand-led Communist Party of Nepal.

“Acting on a tip-off, security personnel detained Magar from Triyuga Municipality-7 and Subedi from Lalbazaar in Belaka Municipality,” said Bhatta.

Seven people including Karki were injured when an IED was detonated targeting his vehicle on his to Nepaltar for an election programme. All the injured were airlifted to the Tribhuvan University Teaching Hospital in Kathmandu for treatment. “Both his legs were fractured. Doctors said he is out of danger,” Karki’s son Niraj told the Post.