The Royal Bhutan Police are investigating four bomb blasts on January 20 that police believe was the work of one of three militant organisations based in Nepal. A police spokesman told Kuensel that it was the work of either the Bhutan Tiger Force, the Bhutan Maoists Party, or the Communist Party of Bhutan.

The first blast went off at 11:10 am near the vegetable market behind the main town in Samtse dzongkhag. There were no reported injuries or damages to property. “We heard a huge noise and people who had come for shopping started running,” said Sonam Lhamo, a Samtse resident. The second blast took place at 11:45 am in Thimphu town, behind the SNS restaurant. The impact of the explosion shattered windowpanes of buildings in the area and unnerved shopkeepers, residents, and passersby in the area but no injuries were reported.

An eyewitness, Ugyen Wangdi, said that he had just stepped out of the SNS building and was on the stairs when he heard the blast. “Some pieces of stone and wood hit both my calves. I turned and saw the place full of dust,” he said. The improvised bomb that blasted in Thimphu was hidden in a pile of construction rubble at a building site.

Some people in the area thought that a gas cylinder had exploded. Dhan Maya, 46, who runs a bar near the explosion site was sweeping her house when the bomb went off. “I fell down and thought that a gas cylinder had burst. “The whole house shook and window panes started breaking,” she said.

The impact of the blast was such that metal pieces flew across the road to the taxi parking area and hit a taxi’s windshield. “All the parked cars were shaking from the blast,” a taxi driver said. One of the pieces also hit another taxi driver on his thigh and tore his gho.

At 1:20 pm a third blast occurred near the gate of the Tala Guest House in Gedu, in Chukha dzongkhag. A woman who was hit by splinters on her thighs was admitted in the ICU at Gedu hospital. Mon Maya Chhetri, 39, an employee of THPA, had come to buy butter and cheese when the blast occurred.

Junendra Sharma, who works in the same office, told Kuensel that Mon Maya was brought unconscious to the hospital. Doctors on Monday operated and removed a splinter from her right thigh. “She will be operated today again to remove the second piece from the left thigh,” said Junendra Sharma.

The blast also bored a hole in the bonnet of a parked Maruti car.

At 2:10 pm the fourth blast occurred in Dagapela, in Dagana dzongkhag, behind the house of the former Tsendagang gup, Passang Tshering, in Goshi town.

His daughter, 26-year old Chuki, said that no one was in the house when the explosion took place. Some flowerpots and empty bottles were broken and the walls of the house cracked. “The noise was deafening and we thought a gas cylinder had burst,” said Chuki.

A second explosive device, which did not go off, was found in the same area. There was no injury to any person or damage to property in the blasts in Samtse and Dagapela. Source: Kuenselonline