ONE FEARED DEAD IN BOMB EXPLOSION, ARSON AT

UNCLAS KATHMANDU 000376

SIPDIS

SENSITIVE

STATE FOR SA/INS AND DS/OP/NEA

LONDON FOR POL/RIEGEL

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: PTER PGOV NP
SUBJECT: ONE FEARED DEAD IN BOMB EXPLOSION, ARSON AT
KATHMANDU LAND REVENUE OFFICE

REF(S): (A) KATHMANDU 0340; (B) 01 KATHMANDU 2331


1. (U) Suspected Maoists set fire to files and set off
a timed explosive device at a Kathmandu Land Revenue
Office a little after 10:00 a.m. on February 15. Four
people, including a police officer attempting to
extinguish the fire were injured. Embassy has heard
unconfirmed reports that at least one of the injured
subsequently died in the hospital of his injuries.


2. (U) According to our most recent information, about
three or four individuals, at least one armed with a
pistol, entered the Land Revenue Office a little after
10:00 a.m., the start of the business day in Nepal.
While the armed individual held occupants of the office
at bay, the other intruders poured kerosene or another
accelerant on land records and other files and ignited
them. Before leaving the office, the intruders set a
timed improvised device made with gelatine explosives,
which detonated shortly thereafter. The Land Revenue
Office is located a little more than one kilometer from
the USAID Mission and Lincoln International School,
which most dependent children in the Mission attend.


3. (SBU) Comment: Land Revenue offices and other
outposts of central government authority have long been
favorite Maoist targets in the hinterlands. This most
recent incident and the Feb. 11 bombing of a Kathmandu
tax office (Ref A) indicate the Maoists are bringing the
fight out of the districts and into the capital. Bombs
have been set off in the capital before, but most, like
the bomb at the Coca-Cola facility (Ref B),were set
outside of working hours. (The December 3 bombing that
killed two at a Kathmandu carpet factory is an
exception.) That the Maoists are now willing to carry
out such attacks during working hours--and that they can
slip by the heightened security cordon around the city
with explosive devices and arms in broad daylight--marks
a disturbing new development in this seven-year-old
insurgency.

Malinowski