The college bus of Golden Gate International College was completely destroyed in the attack, according to the college.[break]
At around 7 am, a group of seven masked men stopped the bus at Sano Bharyang, ordered the students and the driver to alight, set fire to the bus, and fled the scene.
“The bus was carrying management students of grade 11. Luckily all the student are safe,” said Devi Ram Pandey, coordinator of Extra Curricular Activity at Golden Gate International College.
Though police said the identities of the attackers still remains unknown, the college claimed that they were cadres of All Nepal National Independent Student´s Union-Revolutionary (ANNISU-R ), which is affiliated to the CPN-Maoist.
“ANNISU-R had threatened us on several occasions and today they finally did it,” Pandey said.
According to the college, ANNISU-R wanted to establish its unit in the college but the college had refused permission. “As we refused to allow them to set up their unit in the college, they torched our college bus,” added Pandey.
Meanwhile, ANNISU-R rejected the allegation and said it was not involved in the attack. “We are not involved in today´s incident,” said Himal Sharma, the chairman of ANNISU-R.
Unidentified group torches school bus in Bharatpur