A bomb blast rocked the new political party office of Nepal's prime minister in the capital, Kathmandu, today and 10 people were slightly hurt, police said.
No one claimed responsibility for the bomb, which blew out windows and damaged a wall of the building, but Prime Minister Mr Sher Bahadur Deuba's party blamed Maoist rebels fighting to topple the Himalayan nation's constitutional monarchy. "This is an act of terrorism (by the Maoists) to spread fear and terror among the people," it said in a statement.
A police official said 10 people received minor injuries in the blast in an office belonging to a splinter faction of the ruling Nepali Congress party in a residential area of Kathmandu.
The office was set up by Mr Deuba, who is locked in a bitter feud with his predecessor, Mr Girija Prasad Koirala, that has split the Nepali Congress. Mr Deuba rushed to the building cordoned off by police.
Mr Deuba disbanded parliament in May and called elections after some party members refused to support a move to extend emergency rule in order to tackle the intensifying Maoist revolt.
The Election Commission has not decided yet which branch of the Nepali Congress it will recognise to run in elections called for November by Mr Deuba. The United States condemned today's attack, saying in an embassy statement: "This attack on defenceless party workers was a cowardly and criminal act intended to disrupt the legal and free expression of democratic rights."