KATHMANDU, Sept 21: Metropolitan Police on Wednesday charge sheeted two former Maoist combatants under arms, ammunition act and organized crimes over their alleged involvement in planting and detonating improvised explosive devices (IED) at schools. 

District Court Kathmandu remanded the two in a five-day judicial custody for further investigation.

SP Pradhumna Karki, spokesperson of the Metropolitan Police Range Office, Kathmandu, said, “We have started questioning them and are keeping other suspects under close vigil on.”

The police arrested Shankar Lakhe, 31, of Dimipokhari, Ramechhap district and Chandra Bahadur Tamang, 24, of Lampangtar-6, Sindhuli district--both central committee members of Maoist outfit known as Maoist Communist Centre Nepal. 

The least heard Maoist party had taken the responsibility for setting off IEDs soon after the detonation. The police has also identified that Min Devkota, co-coordinator of the outfit's student wing, and Suman Shrestha, coordinator of the Young Communist Force Nepal, another wing, were behind the "terror" act. “We are close in on the alleged masterminds and will arrest them at the earliest,” added SP Karki.

Lakhe and Tamang had been involved in various criminal activities in the past as well, said the police.  

Four Maoist cadres arrested over extortion 

Meanwhile, Metropolitan Police Range Office has also arrested four cadres, including a central committee member of the Baidya led-The Communist Party of Nepal (Revolutionary Maoist) from Bagbazaar of Kathmandu, for engaging in extortion. Those arrested have been identified as Shiva Ram Yadav, the Central Committee Member of the Party, Dipendra Sunuwar, Ram Nepali and Mahesh Shrestha. 

 
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