Stray bomb blast kills three

CHITWAN, Dec 28: Three persons were killed and as many injured when a stray bomb went off at Sundarbasti in Bhandara VDC of Chitwan on Monday morning. [break]

Among those killed are Janaki Rai, 40, her daughter Ram Maya Rai, 18, and Janaki´s brother Raj Kumar Rai, 24. Raj Kumar, who lived in Hatiya, Makwanpur, was a family guest. Among the injured are Ram Kumar Rai, 21, Aravindra Rai, 10, and Bal Krishna Rai, 29. The injured are being treated in Bharatpur Medical College.

Aravindra had found the stray bomb in a field owned by Janaki where the Rai family was constructing a toilet. Unaware of the fact that it was a bomb, Aravindra was playing with it when it went off.

Janaki´s husband Dhwanse Rai is working abroad, according to locals.

Armed Police Force´s Superintendent Uttam Raj Thanet said investigation is being conducted into the incident.

Locals said the explosion also affected livestock in neighboring sheds.

Locals suspect that the bomb was used by the Armed Police Force (APF) for training along the border between Bhandara and Piple VDCs.

Venting their ire on the APF, locals obstructed traffic in Bhandara after the explosion. Locals say that even as they are falling prey to stray bombs left during the insurgency, the APF has put their lives at further risk by negligently leaving bombs near human settlements.

Hira survives by seconds

“I was also playing with the bomb. Luck saved me,” said Hira Rai, 18. “My father asked me to come home. As soon as I entered home, I heard the explosion. Had I played with it for 20 more seconds, I would have also died,” she added.

Hira, who survived the blast at Sundarbasti, Bhandara, was in shock as she said this. When she looked out of her house after hearing the blast, she saw people struggling for life. In a state of panic, she and her father called an ambulance. They later realized that three people had died on the spot.

Hira had suspected that the object could be a bomb but she did not warn anything after it did not explode when they kicked it several times and many children joined to play with it.

The deaths has sent Sundarbasti village into mourning. Madhukar Nepal, a local, complained that negligence on the part of the Armed Police Force caused the tragedy. Krishna Gurung, another local, said that APF made a mistake by not removing the bomb from its training site.

APF in Bhandara admitted that two bombs were misplaced during training. But it denied leaving any bomb in the settlement area.