A bomb went off near a consulate of the Indian Embassy in Nepal on Monday.
The explosion, which reportedly damaged the walls of the office, took place in Biratnagar — the industrial capital of Nepal, the Kathmandu Post reported. However, no one was injured in the blast.
Police in Nepal are yet to find out who caused the blast, but officers investigating the incident suspect that cadres of the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist), led by Netra Bikram Chand, were behind it.
Chand’s party called for a general strike in Biratnagar on Monday. The party has long been at loggerheads with PM KP Sharma Oli and has been accused of carrying out many attacks and robberies across the country recently by local media outlets.
The consulate in Biratnagar was a temporary but functioning one set up by the Indian Embassy during floods last year in Nepal and northern Bihar, according to the Press Trust of India.
There has been a lot of speculation, especially in Indian media, about what caused the explosion as a meeting between Nepal PM Sharma Oli and Indian leader Narendra Modi earlier this month seemed to have eased strained ties between the two neighbors.
Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence, which is often accused by India of spying on its internal security affairs or orchestrating terrorist activities in Indian territory, is suspected to have carried out the blast, sources told Indian news channel CNN-News18.
But there has been no official confirmation about the identity of the bombers or any affiliated organization.
Nepal is a stronghold of ISI and is used to sneak forged currency and weapons into India.