The homemade device went off late yesterday at Biratnagar, 200km (125 miles) southeast of Kathmandu and close to the Indian border.
“There were no injuries in the pressure-cooker bomb blast, but the wall suffered some minor damage. We are investigating,” senior district police
official Arun Kumar said.
Police suspect involvement of a Maoist splinter group which had called a strike in the area, but no one has claimed responsibility for the
explosion.
“No one has been injured in the incident. Our embassy in Kathmandu is in touch with the government of Nepal. The security authorities in Nepal are investigating the matter,” said a statement from an Indian
foreign ministry spokesman.
Following the Koshi river flood in 2008, Nepal requested India to provide its land for transportation and passage for transit facilities until its highways were repaired.
To assist smooth facilitation of the Nepali vehicles via Indian land from Biratnagar to Birgunj, India had temporarily set up the field office in Biratnagar. It has remained there for a
decade now.
Every visiting Nepali prime minister to India has requested for its removal but India
did not.
Nepal’s relationship with India - which is often accused of acting as a “big brother” to its smaller impoverished neighbour - soured after a months-long border blockade in 2015 by ethnic minority protesters over a controversial new
constitution.
Kathmandu accused India of imposing an “unofficial blockade” on the landlocked nation in support of the protesting group, who share close cultural, linguistic and family links with Indians across the border.
Earlier this month, Nepal’s newly elected Prime Minister K P Sharma Oli visited India, a trip that signalled a reset of strained relations.
Nepal is heavily dependent on India for fuel and other
supplies.
