Friday’s bomb explosion at an SLC examination centre in Dailekh where 204 candidates were taking an exam deserves to be roundly condemned whatever the motive or provocation. Eleven examinees and an invigilator were injured, apart from some damage caused to the school building. A number of students fainted; and no less important, the tender minds may have felt negative psychological impact because they were terrified. No doubt, the examination for the paper concerned will be held again (April 7), but the main concern is over the targeting of a school or examination centre despite the public consensus that schools should be declared the zones of peace. Logically, neither the state nor the Maoists should have any grudge against innocent students. Though the Maoists have not taken responsibility for the attack, as of this writing, the security forces and others have attributed the outrage to them.

The dastardly act should be investigated, and the Maoists, for their part, should come out with their view of the attack, particularly because they, too, had been saying that they would allow the SLC examinations to pass off peacefully. The attack cannot be defended at any cost, and it would only tarnish the public image of those who planned or executed it. The best thing for the country would be a political solution of the conflict as early as possible. But even while efforts at that continue, innocent civilians and such sacred places as schools should be spared. SLC students, already facing the load of studies and severe hardships because of power outage and, particularly in the rural areas, the shifting of SLC centres to the district headquarters, would find any additional burden just too heavy to bear.

The Maoists’ stated policy, at least in recent times, has been not to harm the innocent civilians and it finds a mention in the 12-point understanding between them and the parties. Therefore, the Maoists owe a public explanation about the incident. The general people, caught in the crossfire between the two warring sides, are seeking safety of their person as well as protection against displacement from their homes, as the appeal of a 14-year-old girl, escaping from Maoist captivity, symbolises. Both sides have tended to put each other in a poor light whenever the other side has been responsible for an attack on civilians, deliberately or accidentally. This attempt at one-upmanship might serve their immediate publicity stunt, but what they need to do is to initiate solid steps in the resolution of the 10-year-old conflict. There is no other way.