THT 10 YEARS AGO: CDO among 43 hurt in Birgunj blasts

Birgunj, January 30, 2008

Thirty-two persons, including Parsa Chief District Officer Bhola Prasad Siwakoti, were injured when a bomb exploded near the venue of seven parties’ mass meet at Narayani Rangasala here. Eleven others were hurt in separate blasts in Birgunj.

The blast at the SPA meet occurred in an open space near Gautam School when Nepali Congress leader and Minister for Science, Technology and Environment Pharmulla Mansur, who was the last speaker, was addressing the joint meet. The bomb occurred at 3:55 pm, just five minutes before the conclusion of the meet. Eyewitnesses said an unidentified person left the bomb at the site seconds before it exploded.

Earlier, seven persons, including a bus driver, were injured when a bomb was hurled at the bus that was heading towards the meet venue carrying Maoist cadres in front of Kediya Eye Hospital at Parwanipur at 3:30 pm. In another incident, four persons were injured when a bomb was hurled targeting a tractor that was heading to the meet venue carrying people near the venue at 2:00 pm.

A civilian was hurt when a bomb exploded at Mahabirsthan at 9 am today. Injured CDO has been undergoing treatment in Advanced Medical College, while other injured have been admitted to Narayani Sub-Regional Hospital (NSRH) in Birgunj, Parsa district superintendent of police Yogeshwor Ramkhomi said. He added that most of the injured were hurt in legs. Of the injured undergoing treatment at NSRH, condition of two is critical, the hospital source said. Several groups had been effecting blasts since last evening.

Scores of Nepalis missing in US

Huntsville, January 30, 2008

Up to 100 people who came from Nepal to work at a north Alabama factory seemingly vanished from a pair of apartment buildings, along with a lot of furniture and appliances, and can’t be located, officials said yesterday.

Immigration agents are trying to determine what happened to the Nepali workers, among hundreds brought to the United States to work at a DVD factory operated by Cinram Inc, said Lauren Bethune, a spokeswoman for the Alabama Department of Homeland Security. “We do not in any way consider it a security threat, but we do think it is important,” she said. A Huntsville television station, WAAY-TV, first reported on the missing workers.

Cinram’s human resources director, Peter Hassler, did not immediately return a telephone call seeking comment. But a spokesman for a company that recruited the workers for Cinram said a contact in Nepal believes many of them have returned home.

“Most of the people he was talking to said they came to America, did what they wanted to do and went back home,” said Doug Wilson, president of Ambassador Personnel in Thomasville, Georgia.