Kathmandu, January 18:

Police said today that cadres of the Nepal Defence Army (NDA) hurled a bomb at a micro-bus at Bhotahity on January 14 while a mass meeting of the seven parties was nearing its end at Tundihkel.

They had actually tried to trigger the blast at the dias where the SPA leaders were sitting during the mass meeting but did not dare to do so fearing immediate arrest, police said.

Police made this revelation after they held two persons yesterday for their alleged involvement in the explosion on a micro-bus that left eight persons hurt.

“Three persons were involved in the crime. We arrested Santosh Kumar Basnet, 34, and Megh Bahadur Khatri, 32, both from Dang and Chandra Bhupal Pun from Rukum is absconding,” SSP at the Metropolitan Police Crime Division (MPCD) Upendra Kanta Aryal said at a press meet held by the MPCD today.

“The duo are the cadres of the NDA, which according to our report, is an organisation of Hindu fundamentalists fighting to retain the country as a Hindu state,” he said.

The police said the chief architect of the explosion, Basnet, landed Kathmandu on January 10 after exploding a bomb at the Nobel Medical College at Biratnagar.

“He met members of the NDA, Khatri and Pun on January 11 and 12 and prepared the plan inside the Shanti Batika at Ratna Park on January 13. Then they went into Tundikhel, observed the site and finalised the plan,” Aryal added.

“The trio came out of Tundikhel and hurled the explosive at a mirco-bus at Bhotahity when there was a traffic mess there and fled the scene, he added.