Kathmandu car bomb mastermind caught

KATHMANDU - Moving fast to prevent attacks on Nepal’s top politicians, police Thursday said they have caught the man who masterminded the first car bomb blast in the country two days ago.

Bishnu Shah, in his 30s, who was working as a shop assistant in Kathmandu, was arrested late Tuesday night from Kavre district close to the capital, Nepal Police spokesman Bijnan Raj Sharma told IANS.

Further details were not disclosed immediately as a five-member police team aided by a crime division branch and other units continued a manhunt for a newly-formed underground party that claimed responsibility for the car bomb explosion.

The Swatantra Nepal Dal - Free Nepal Party - a never-before-heard of organisation, claimed it had triggered the car bomb blast in the Vasundhara area of the capital Tuesday as a “test case”.

A statement by the outfit warned that action would be taken against Nepal’s major parties and their “paid” MPs for their failure to promulgate the much-awaited new constitution by May 28.

A white Maruti car parked near the Ishan Emergency Hospital had gone up in flames, hitting passers-by with flaming debris.

Sharma said Shah had kept the two bombs inside the car that caused the explosion as well as a third that failed to explode and was later defused by an army bomb disposal squad.

Shah is also alleged to have kept two cans of petrol inside the car to cause a fire.

The car belonged to a transport entrepreneur, Ram Bahadur Adhikari.

Soon after the blast, police had arrested the driver, Dipak Biswakarma, a man who was with him and a third who owned the shop where Shah worked.