KATHMANDU, June 7: Nepal’s Maoists admitted a ‘grave mistake’ and claimed responsibility on Tuesday for a bus bombing that killed 38 people as the government, politicians and rights groups in the Himalayan kingdom condemned one of the bloodiest ever attacks on civilians.

More than 70 people were also wounded in Monday’s attack at Madi village in the Maoist-controlled district of Chitwan, about 180 kilometres southwest of Kathmandu, the army said.

“A group of People’s Liberation Army personnel were involved in the attack and the direct leadership supervising the action have been immediately suspended,” Maoist party chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal, also known as Prachanda, said in the statement verified by a Maoist source as genuine.

“The ambush was targeted at security personnel and the loss of civilian lives in it was a grave mistake.”

Mr Prachanda pledged an investigation of the bombing within the rebel movement and said the findings would be made public.

The army and the government had earlier laid the blame for the attack squarely at the door of the Maoist rebels, who have been waging a bloody insurgency for the past nine years that has left more than 11,000 people dead.

The attack killed several women and children as well as three military personnel on their way home for vacation.

The bombing provoked outrage in Nepal, with newspapers showing pictures of the mangled bus and mutilated bodies of victims strewn across the site and wailing relatives.

The independent Human Rights and Peace Society termed the attack “deplorable, cowardice and a violation of international humanitarian laws”.

Political parties, including the Nepali Congress and the Nepal Communist Party-United Marxist and Leninist (NCP-UML) also condemned the rebels.

“The Maoists’ action is a barbaric and a cruel crime against humanity,” the NCP-UML said.

Mr Prachanda denied that the Maoists had changed long-standing policy and were now targeting civilians.

“It is not our party policy to target innocent civilians, and there has been no change in the policy,” Prachanda’s statement said, adding that he believed there was “a strong possibility of enemy infiltration in the incident”.

As the bus passed Madi as much as 50 kilograms (110 pounds) of explosives buried underneath the road were detonated. The vehicle was crammed with more than 100 passengers, some sitting on the roof.

“The terrorists knew that very few vehicles operated on the route, and despite the fact that they could see a lot of people travelling inside and on the rooftop of the bus, they blasted it,” an army statement said.

Witnesses said the bus was torn apart by the force of the blast and passengers were hit by shrapnel and shards of metal and glass.

“(The bus) rose into the air... quite high and came down and split into two,” an army officer said, quoting witnesses.

Political analyst Akhilesh Upadhyay described the attack as “perhaps the worst public crime the Maoists have carried out on a civilian target”.

“It’s too early to tell whether there has been a shift in their policy to take on soft targets,” said Upadhyay, editor of Kantipur online.

“But what is certain is that the images of the mangled bus and the dead bodies that were shown in today’s newspapers and TV news bulletins will give them a very bad name.”

The Maoists have stepped up their revolt with road blockades and attacks on troops since King Gyanendra sacked the coalition government, imposed a state of emergency and assumed absolute power on February 1.

He said the power grab was necessary to quell the communist insurgency. —AFP