A man was burnt to death alive when gunmen belonging to little-known Madhesh Rastra Janatantrik Party (MRJP) set a passenger bus to fire in Saptari Tuesday night, reports Kantipur Daily.

The gunmen burned the passenger bus (registration no 6455) heading to Eastern Nepal from Kathmandu near Birendra Bazaar section of the East-West Highway, saying that it had violated the strike imposed by them in the area.

Eyewitnesses told the paper that the gunmen immediately doused the bus in petrol and set fire to it without even giving the night bus passengers enough time to get off from the bus.

The report said that the passengers managed to come out from what could be their death trap by breaking open the bus door after the fire started to rapidly engulf the bus.

Police said that a male passenger at the back of the bus was burnt to death alive. His identity has not been known yet.

The gunmen had at first tried to stop the bus carrying about 40 passengers. But after it didn’t stop the armed group fired at it and flattened its tires.

Passengers said that the gunmen then robbed them off their mobile phones, cash and jewelleries at gun point, burnt the bus and fled from the scene.

One of many rag-tag armed groups involved in low-intensity terrorist activities in Terai, MRJP had called the strike in protest of the killing of one of its members in police operation few weeks back.

The outfit has already taken responsibility for the arson. nepalnews.com Dec 03 08