CHANDRANIGAPUR - College students thronged the opening of the 'A People War' photo exhibition here on Thursday at the start of a tour that will take it to 10 venues across eastern and central Nepal.

The exhibition at Chandranigapur on the East-West Highway was opened by Bhakta Bahadur Regmi, whose wife was killed during a Maoist firebomb attack on a passenger bus four years ago.

His daughter and son, Rabina and Rabin, were badly burned in the attack. (See: 'Why the children?' # 121).

A photograph of Rabina and Rabin by journalist Naresh Newar is among 179 pictures in the book, A People War, published by nepa~laya in January.

"I am still struck with terror when I remember the suffering my wife and children went through," Regmi said at the opening, "I hope Nepalis will never have to endure such pain again."

Media reports of Rabin and Rabina's plight in 2002 brought enormous response from readers within and outside Nepal.

The Sushma Koirala Memorial Hospital in Sankhu offered free plastic surgery and the two children were enrolled for free by Bright Horizon School at Matatirtha.

The photo exhibition tour is supported by local branches of the Federation of Nepalese Journalists (FNJ) and will be travelling through Malangwa, Itahari, Dhankuta, Birtamod, Damak, Biratnagar, Gaighat, Birganj and Palung till 11 October.

PICS: SHIVA PURI

"The eastern tarai is a part of Nepal where the war never ended, and there is a danger the violence will take on an ethno-separatist character," said exhibition curator Kunda Dixit at the opening on Thursday. "There is a lesson from these pictures, that violence doesn't resolve problems, it makes them worse."