An improvised explosive device (IED) was found near the north wall of the District Court located in Manma, the headquarters of Kalikot district on Tuesday. The IED was found inside a small box while workers were digging to lay the pipeline of the Chulimalika Water Supply Project.

Acting District Police Chief Subraj Bam said that a bomb disposal squad of the Nepal Army disposed of the IED that was wrapped in plastic and placed in the box.

The project workers had informed the police in the morning after finding a suspicious object. The police then informed the Nepal Army and after determining that the object was an IED, the army personnel defused it at around 4 pm.

Chief District Officer Jora Singh Majhi said that the IED might have been from the conflict era.

On October 29 last year two children had died and three others were injured when an IED went off at Tilagufa Municipality in the district.

Seven people have died and six people have been injured in IED explosions in nine separate places in the district since the signing of the comprehensive peace agreement between the government and the then Maoists, which marked an end to the armed insurgency.