Rautahat, Oct. 21 -- The Rautahat District Court on Sunday remanded Nepali Congress lawmaker Mohammad Aftab Alam to five more days in judicial custody.

Alam, also a former minister, was arrested on October 13 in connection with a bomb blast and subsequent murder of as many as 23 people in Rautahat in 2008.

On October 15, the court had decided to remand him in custody for seven days. On Sunday, Judge Chanak Mani Aryal prolonged the custody.

On April 9, 2008, some people were injured when explosives they were making, apparently at the behest of Alam, went off accidentally. The explosives were being made targeting the imminent Constituent Assembly elections, according to police. Alam, according to investigations, was involved in burning a...