Children die in bomb blast

A bomb exploded near a school in northwestern Nepal today, killing three children and injuring four others, police said.

The explosion follows nearly simultaneous attacks by Maoist guerrillas on Thursday night on four towns in western Nepal that killed at least 54 people.

Today’s powerful explosion occurred in Laltin Bazaar town in the Bajura district, about 370 miles from the capital Katmandu.

No other details of the explosion were immediately available. No one claimed responsibility, but suspicion fell on Maoist rebels who have been fighting for the last six years to replace the Himalayan kingdom’s constitutional monarchy with communist rule.

More than 3,000 people have been killed.

The rebels have been accused by some human rights groups of indiscriminately attacking security forces and civilians. Rights groups also accuse police of targeting civilians in their crackdown.

In fighting that ended yesterday morning, the rebels killed 48 police officers and six civilians during raids on the house of Nepal’s interior security minister, a police station, two banks and bus.

Security officials patrolling the Nepal-India border, however, told The Associated Press news agency that nearly 100 police officers and civilians were killed in the attacks.