The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has expressed grave concerns at reports that a bomb exploded on school premises in the remote mid-western district of Dailekh during the School Leaving Certificate exams on Friday morning.

Reports say a number of students were reported to have been injured by the explosion.

In a statement issued Friday evening, the UNICEF recalled that the UN System had made previous appeals to all parties to the Nepal conflict to “respect examination sites as safe and peaceful areas where there are no disturbances.” Bombing and any other acts of violence on school premises are to be condemned, the statement said.

Under international humanitarian law, parties to an armed conflict must not target or endanger schools. The UN System had said in its statement on February 2 this year, “In order to function as effective places of education, schools need to be safe, left free from conflict and not politicised.”

UNICEF has again reiterated the call of the UN System in Nepal for all parties to remember the needs and rights of children and to keep schools out of the conflict.

Rights groups have also condemned the Maoist act of causing explosions targeting the examination center this morning.