Church blast suspect arrested

KATHMANDU, June 2: In a major success, police have arrested a woman allegedly involved in planting a bomb in the prayer hall of Assumption Church at Dhobighat, Lalitpur district, two weeks ago. [break]

The arrested is Sita Thapa Shrestha, 27, of Gyaneshwar, Kathmandu, according to police. She was arrested from her apartment at Shantinagar, Baneshwar on Tuesday morning.

A pressure cooker bomb in the church on June 23 had killed three Indian nationals -- Celeste Joseph, 15, on the spot and Deepa Patrick, 20, and Buddha Laxmi Joseph, 35, in the course of treatment -- and left 13 others injured.

While Celeste and Deepa died on the same day, Buddha Laxmi breathed her last on May 31.

Police, however, did not make the suspect public citing ongoing investigations.

The explosion occurred when a congregation of over 300 was about to start a Saturday mass, and just a few minutes after an unidentified woman, now identified as Sita, exited the prayer hall at about 9.15 a.m, leaving behind a bag.

Mugshot of Sita Thapa Shrestha provided by the police.

The Church of the Assumption is the first and the biggest Catholic church in Nepal. A large number of expatriates visit the church every Sunday.

Addressing a news conference organized in the capital, Deputy Inspector General (DIG) Kuber Singh Rana, who is the head of a probe committee into the blast, said she was arrested on Tuesday morning from her rented apartment at Shantinagar, Kathmandu.

Home Ministry had formed a three-member probe committee on June 24 keeping in view of the seriousness of the attack at the religious site.

Binaya Patrick, 21, who is the husband of the slain Deepa, had identified Sita as the same woman who left a bag and exited the prayer hall, minutes before the fateful incident occurred. “She [Sita] has also confessed to the crime,” said DIG Rana.

Preliminary investigation showed that Sita is associated with various religious and social organizations including Save Hindu State Committee and was strongly demanding scrapping of the decision to make Nepal a secular state. She was found to be actively engaged in forcing the government to revoke the decision made by the first sitting of the Constituent Assembly last year to declare Nepal a secular state.

A little-known Hindu fundamentalist group called Nepal Defense Army had owned up the blast. The group had detonated bombs at a mosque and a church in Biratnagar last year, besides carrying out explosions in various parts of the capital city Kathmandu.

DIG Rana said they have also kept the NDA chief Ram Prasad Mainali on ´the most wanted´ list. “We are carrying out further investigation as per intelligence reports and details received from the arrested,” he added.

koshraj@myrepublica.com