Nepal Church Bomb Planter Arrested, Gives More Clues

A 27-year-old woman has confessed to 'planting a bomb' in Church of the Assumption in Kathmandu on 23 May that had killed three worshipers and injuring 15 others.

Nepalese police said Sita Thapa Shrestha has confessed, "I planted the bomb because I hate Christians and other religions and only love Hinduism."

Kuber Singh Rana, head of the task force investigating the episode was quoted by AsiaNews as saying, "We have detained her as the prime accused person and she has confessed the crime" and her involvement with the Hindu extremist group known as the "Nepal Defence Army(NDA)."

Earlier, the Nepal Defence Army(NDA), a group wishing to restore Hinduism as the official religion of Nepal had claimed for the responsibility of the violence which seems to have made the investigation easier as now the police are searching for Mr. Prasad Mainali, head of NDA.

According to Compass Direct, the NDA made a small splash in 2007, a year after Nepal's last king, Gyanendra Bir Bikram Shah, who had tried to seize absolute power with the help of the army, was forced to step down after nationwide protests. The cornered king had to reinstate a parliament that had been dissolved several years ago, and the resurrected house promptly decided to end his pretensions as the incarnation of a Hindu god by declaring Nepal to be a secular country.

Soon after that, Mr Mainali walked into the office of a Nepalese weekly in Kathmandu and claimed to have formed the NDA, a group of former army soldiers, policemen and victims of the Maoists. Its aim was to build up an underground army that would wage a Hindu "jihad."

The NDA began to acquire a reputation after it set off a bomb in 2007 at the Kathmandu office of the Maoists, who had laid down arms and returned to mainstream politics. In 2008, it stepped up its pro-Hindu war, bombing two mosques in southern Nepal and killing two Muslims at prayer.

It also targeted a church in the east, a newspaper office and the interim Parliament on the day the latter officially announced Nepal a secular republic.

Police suspect that the woman and the extremist group are also behind the murder of Fr. John Prakash. The Salesian priest and director of the Don Bosco School in Sirsiya, Morang district, were assassinated July last and those responsible for his murder have still not been caught.

"Small churches in southern and eastern Nepal, which are often congregations of 40-50 people who worship in rented rooms, have been terrified by threats and demands for money," representatives of the Christian community was quoted as saying by Compass.

Some congregations have reportedly paid extortion sums to avert attacks from the fearful group.