Rebel dies in Bhutan blast
Posted by barunroy on June 6, 2008
Jaigaon, June 5: A suspected militant was killed and another injured in Bhutan in two blasts that shook the Himalayan nation in the early hours today.
Bhutan police sources said the dead was identified as Indrabahadur Ghole (30). The injured person, Chandraraj Rai (30), has been admitted to a hospital in Bhutan.
Police in the neighbouring country claimed that Ghole and Rai were members of the extremist outfit Communist Party of Bhutan (Marxist-Leninist-Maoist).
They said both belonged to a refugee camp in Beldangi in Nepal.
According to the Bhutan home secretary, Dasho Wangdi, the first blast took place in Samchi near Nainital Primary School.
“There was a huge explosion around 12.15am. Soldiers from an army camp nearby surrounded the area and found Chandraraj Rai, with his left arm badly injured in the blast. He was admitted to the district hospital in Samchi,” the home secretary said.
According to Wangdi, Chandraraj had taken a bus from Beldangi camp yesterday and got off at Looksan on the Bengal-Bhutan border.
The militant had crossed into Bhutan last night under the cover of darkness.
The second explosion took place just 4km from this border town on the road to Thimpu near a petrol pump. The pump is located at Garbadi in Chukha district.
“The second blast took place around 2.05am and it was very powerful. Ghole, who was carrying the explosive devise, had the left side of his body completely blown off,” Wangdi said. As a second pair of shoes was found in the spot, it is suspected that one more person was with the victim, he said.
“The police have recovered a diary, a mobile phone in four pieces, five flags belonging to the Maoist group and a booklet that contains slogans against our king,” Wangdi said.
The additional police superintendent of Alipurduar, S. R. Mishra, who visited the spot in Chukha this morning, said the police were “strengthening vigil on our side following the blasts”.
Right across the road from the petrol pump, a 2ft-deep crater was formed after the blast. The ground around had bloodstains.
Sources in the Bhutan government said the militant outfit had written to the king on March 22 last year appealing for talks, but the monarch remained silent.
This year, the outfit wrote another letter with a 13-point charter of demands concerning the return of Nepalese who once lived in Bhutan, but were pushed back.
“The blasts are a kind of threat to the kingdom’s tranquillity,” the sources said. [The Telegraph]
