Indian national flag

An explosive device went off outside an Indian Government Office in South-Eastern Nepal, Local Police said on Tuesday, in the latest instance of fury targeted at the country’s powerful neighbour.

The blast, which occurred at the office, caused damage to the compound wall, said Arun Kumar BC, a senior police officer in the border town of Biratnagar.

No one was injured in the incident.

Some political groups have demanded that the office, which had been set up after floods devastated the border area in 2008, should be closed, claiming that it represented an interference in Nepal’s sovereignty.

“The blast occurred in an open space outside the office. It caused cracks in the wall,’’ the police officer said, adding that it was caused by a pressure-cooker bomb.

In February, cadres of a splinter Maoist party detonated a crude bomb at the site of an India-funded hydropower project in north-east Nepal.

No one claimed responsibility for the attack, but some reports suggested the Maoist faction could be behind it.

(dpa/NAN)