A team from Kavre District Police and Metropolitan Police arrested nine members, including some senior leaders, of the Netra Bikram Chand-led Communist Party of Nepal from Kavre on Saturday morning.
According to police, two senior leaders of the party—Hemanta Prakash Oli ‘Sudarshan’ and Bijay Shrestha ‘Prajwalan’—were among the arrestees.
Oli is in-charge of the mid-central command of the party while Shrestha is the party’s “army bureau chief”. Shankar Adhikari, Lalit Tamang, Sanjiv Karki, Dev Ghimire, Lokendra Khadka and Dharmaraj Rajbahak are other Chand party members who were arrested.
Oli, one of the five members in Chand’s high command, had escaped on Tuesday when police had reached Kafal Danda of Roshi Rural Municipality in Kavre district following a tip-off about the party’s hideout.
Police had then arrested two cadres—Shiba Dhimal and Bishal Tamang—after exchanging fire.
Oli is also said to have been a key person behind the blasts at Nakkhu and Basundhara in the Capital. The blast at Nakkhu on February 22 had claimed one human life and injured two others. There was no human casualty in the blast at Basundhara on March 8.