The perpetrators of last week's fatal blast at the Assumption Church in Dhobighat were terrorist, pure and simple. No religion preaches violence. No interpretation of Hinduism can justify such brutal slaughter of innocent human beings.

Nepal's Buddhist, Muslim, Hindu and other religious leaders showed unprecedented solidarity by arriving together at the church in Jawalakhel within hours of the blast. Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal visited the church and the wounded at hospital even before taking his oath of office.

Nepal's 10 year class war is in danger of being transformed into ethno-religious violence. Not because the people want it, not because there are genuine grievances but because certain political power centres want to use religion as an excuse to foment anarchy and violence.

This virus needs to be eradicated at the incubation stage itself. The lack of governance and the absence of the state is often the root cause of communal, ethnic and religious violence. That is where the treatment should begin, not just adding two more baton-wielding cops at churches in Kathmandu.

Two years ago, our interim administrators bestowed upon themselves the right to declare Nepal secular and federal, even though such matters should have been left to the elected CA. In the name of fighting left extremism, rightist radicals find in religion a powerful tool. The Americans propped up the Taliban to fight the Soviets until it grew into a monster they couldn't control.

Nepal may be secular, but this is a country where even a communist prime minister consults his family priest before shifting to his official residence.

Such rituals are harmless, and will continue whether Nepal is secular or not. What is dangerous is to combine politics and religion into an explosive mix and light the fuse with terrorist attacks like the one last week.

All religious pogroms in history have been deliberately ignited by political groups. Inter-religious violence, even revenge massacres, are rarely spontaneous. Since it has to do more with politics rather than religion, that is where the hunt for the terrorists who detonated a bomb in a church last week should begin.

This isn't just a law and order issue. The bombing of a church is a heinous crime that requires the strong arm of the state to act: intelligence, infiltration with undercover agents, police investigation and public prosecution of the guilty.

This can't be treated as just another episode in the crime wave that is sweeping the country. This isn't just a murder of two innocent devotees, it is an act of terrorists wearing the cloak of religion.

The government needs to calm frayed nerves and the deep insecurity felt by Nepal's Christians. When the victim is from a minority community, it becomes the moral obligation of the majority community to show solidarity.

There is no other way of protecting social fabric from enemies within who want to tear this country apart.