Monday, February 27, 2012

TRAVEL ADVISORY - 27th FEB 2012

Today, a little known outfit based in the east of the Nepal, claimed responsibility to a bomb attack at the gate of the offices of the Nepal Oil Corporation - apparently in protest to the petrol price hike announced this very morning. The government had raised the prices some weeks earlier, then lowered it after protests from student unions, and had raised it now again.

Three innocent lives were lost, and half a dozen injured.

This is the first ever bomb incident in recent years in the city where lives have been lost. The last bomb explosion was the one at the Assumption Church in 2009, which killed two people. That was presumably an anti-church attack.


View bombing in a larger map

TRAVEL ADVICE - This has been done in specific protest to the price hike, and specifically targeted to the Government quarter. While the place is quite crowded, this is hardly an area that any tourist visits, except the nearby Babar Mahal Revisited shopping center which is frequented by Expats living in Nepal.

Our advice would be to monitor the situation, listen to locals, ask advice from the company you are booking your travel with. They know best which parts of the city to avoid, if this situation continues.

News of this story on BBCNEPALNEWS (read this one anyways, to get updates)


ADDENDUM - 28th FEB - There are protests from teachers and students going on in the capital. The teachers are protesting the impermanence of their jobs, and this should end soon. The public has put in a Public Interest Litigation against the protestors, as it is effecting education. The students will protest the price hike of fuel - that will come for sure.


All this means that again, there are parts of the city where the traffic will be held, and will add to the hassle factor in movement for travel. Avoid certain areas and you should be fine. As always, the advice is simple - CONSULT the LOCALS.

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