Badarmude bus explosion
Encyclopedia
The Badarmude bus explosion was a terrorist attack on a civilian commuter coach in Southern Nepal
Nepal
Nepal , officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal, is a landlocked sovereign state located in South Asia. It is located in the Himalayas and bordered to the north by the People's Republic of China, and to the south, east, and west by the Republic of India...

 near the village of Badarmude on July 6, 2005.

Overview

The bus was a regular transit coach, which are common in Nepal for transporting local people around the Himalayan mountains. The bus was travelling its usual route to the stop in the rural town of Badarmude 175km south of Kathmandu with at least 120 passengers on board and on the roof at the time of the attack.

As the bus crossed a small wooden bridge over a mountain stream, a member of a terrorist organisation detonated a small bomb from his position 250m away behind a tree. The bomb was not large enough to seriously damage the bus on its own, but did succeed in collapsing the fragile bridge into the stream below, taking the bus with it. Parts of the bus and its passengers littered the banks stream and remains of the bridge, and injured people requiring immediate medical assistance were scattered throughout the wreckage.

Local people provided the most immediate relief, but army officials were hampered in organising a proper rescue operation, due to the remote nature of the terrain. The eventual report stated that there were 38 dead (some sources say 53), and 71 injured, some of them very seriously, including those requiring amputation and lengthy hospitalisation.

The attack has not been claimed, but was almost certainly the work of the Communist Party of Nepal, fervent Maoists, who have been fighting the Nepal Civil War
Nepal Civil War
The Nepali Civil War was a conflict between government forces and Maoist rebels in Nepal which lasted from 1996 until 2006...

 against the monarchy since 1996 http://www.cbc.ca/world/story/2005/06/06/nepal-bus050606.html. Their great opponent in King Gyanendra
Gyanendra of Nepal
Gyanendra Shah was the last King of Nepal. During his life, he has held the title of the King twice: first between 1950 and 1951 as a child when his grandfather Tribhuvan was forced into exile in India with the rest of his family; and from 2001 to 2008, following the Nepalese royal massacre.King...

 has recently stepped up attacks on their positions and a crackdown on their supporters, following his reinstatement of absolute monarchy in Nepal following mild democratic reforms.

The CPN
CPN
CPN may stand for:*Called party number*Calpine Corporation, New York Stock Exchange symbol CPN*Canadian Perinatal Network*Carnivorous Plant Newsletter*Carpinteria , California, Amtrak station code CPN...

does not have a history of attacking purely civilian targets, and previous assaults on buses have either been because the bus was transporting troops, or had been violating strikes ordered by the CPN. Neither was the case here, and the cause of the attack remains unknown.

External links

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