Nearly two decades after the peace accord formally ended a protracted Maoist insurgency (1996-2006), explosives planted during the conflict are still being discovered in settlements, school compounds and farmlands across the country.

For survivors like Bhagwati Gautam of Rukum, the fear has never truly faded.

On March 7, 2002, Gautam was travelling from Rukumkot to Musikot, then the district headquarters, for work when a powerful explosion tore through the path at Sankh. She lost consciousness instantly.

“When I woke up, I was lying on a bed at the TU Teaching Hospital in Maharajgunj,” Gautam recalled. “The bomb had blown off one of my legs, and shrapnel pierced my body.”

Security personnel had medevaced her to Kathmandu. She spent six months in hospital before returning home with an artificial limb.

“I was just walking on a path,” she said. “Those involved in the war planted traps against each other, but ordinary people like us suffered the consequences.”

Even today, she says, news of bombs being found anywhere in the country frightens her.

The risks from wartime explosives resurfaced tragically last September in Panchthar district, where two children were killed after an explosive device detonated in a courtyard in Phalelung Rural Municipality.

The explosion occurred on August 29, 2024 at the house of Gyan Bahadur Rai in Prangbung. Eleven-year-old Dipson Sanwa and his two-year-old sister Prinsa Sanwa, children of Rai’s neighbour Dilip Sanwa, died in the blast.

Long after the 2006 Comprehensive Peace Accord, unexploded bombs, grenades and socket bombs used during the insurgency continue to surface across war-hit districts.

According to security agencies, many explosives planted or buried during the conflict may still remain underground, particularly in remote areas and former battlegrounds.

On May 2 this year, 86 different types of bombs were discovered on the premises of the District Police Office in Sharada Municipality, Salyan, during excavation work for a new building foundation. Police said the explosives had been collected after the peace agreement and buried underground. A Nepali Army bomb disposal team later neutralised them.

Similarly, on December 27, 2025, a socket bomb was found while digging the foundation of a house belonging to Dhiraj Bahadur Chhetri in Chaurjahari, Rukum West.

On May 19, two socket bombs were recovered from the grounds of Bhagwati Secondary School in Nuwagaun of Rolpa’s Tribeni Rural Municipality. The explosives had reportedly been buried underground for years.

In another case, two grenade bombs were found inside the premises of Chaturmukhi Temple in Kalika Municipality, Chitwan, in December 2024 while locals were digging the ground.

Earlier, on January 14, 2016, security personnel had recovered as many as 360 socket bombs from Korbang Jhimpe-Kharsubang in Salyan. The discoveries have kept residents anxious even years after the war ended.

Following the peace agreement, Maoist combatants were confined to seven main and 21 satellite cantonments, where weapons and explosives were collected under United Nations supervision. The United Nations Mission in Nepal (UNMIN) gathered around 52,000 explosive devices weighing nearly seven tonnes.

In 2009, UNMIN experts destroyed explosives and unusable weapons stored in cantonments in Chitwan, Jhapa, Kailali, Surkhet and Rolpa.

The government and the United Nations Mine Action Team had also declared Nepal free of mined areas in 2011 after clearing 73 identified minefields across the country. The final landmine was detonated at Phulchoki hill in Lalitpur in the presence of then-prime minister Jhala Nath Khanal and then-army chief Chhatra Man Singh Gurung.

But experts say that declaration did not mean every explosive hidden during the conflict had been recovered. According to them, the IEDs are still found in war affected districts such as Rukum, Rolpa, Jajarkot, Salyan, Dang, Sindhuli, Sindhupalchok.

Purnashova Chitrakar, head of the Nepal Campaign to Ban Landmines, said around 5,000 people were directly affected by landmines and explosive remnants during and after the insurgency.

“Landmine Monitor and UNICEF had monitored many of those incidents,” she said, adding that hidden explosives continue to put civilians at risk.

Former home minister Ramesh Lekhak had informed the National Assembly that 651 people were killed and 2,899 injured in landmine and explosion-related incidents between 1996 and mid-2025, citing Nepal Police records.

Retired Nepali Army brigadier general Suresh Sharma said remnants of war continue to pose dangers in countries emerging from armed conflict.

“When an armed conflict takes place, traces of war remain behind,” Sharma said. “Landmines, grenades and socket bombs planted by both sides can remain hidden for years. Nepal is still not completely free from such risks.”

He warned that children and ordinary villagers are particularly vulnerable when abandoned explosives are found accidentally.

Deputy Inspector General Abi Narayan Kafle, the Nepal Police spokesperson, said isolated discoveries of wartime explosives still occur but authorities have been responding quickly.

“There are no recent major incidents from such explosives,” he said. “Whenever suspicious devices are found, people should immediately inform the police so the Nepali Army can safely dispose of them.”

Deepak Chalaune, a former assistant commander of the Maoists’ Third Division in Chitwan, acknowledged that unused bombs buried during the conflict may still remain hidden.

“Technical teams used to prepare explosives and store them in different districts,” he said. “Some unused bombs were buried in pits or drains during the war. After the peace process began, many remained where they had been hidden, which is why they continue to surface now.”