A chartered Nepal Airlines plane on Wednesday brought back the bodies of 12 of the 13 Nepalis killed in the Kabul blast.
A pall of gloom engulfed the airport area, with the family members of the victims weeping as the bodies were unloaded from the aircraft.
Prime Minister KP Oli, Home Minister Shakti Basnet, Labour Minister Dipak Bohara and Foreign Affairs Minister Kamal Thapa were at the airport to pay their last respects.
The Airbus 320-200 also transported 24 Nepalis who did not want to continue working in Kabul after the blast.
On Tuesday, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MoFA) decided to charter a plane to bring back the deceased. MoFA had also sent Nepal's acting Ambassador to Pakistan, Tirtha Raj Aryal, to Kabul to facilitate the repatriation of those who had perished.
On Monday morning, 14 persons, including two Indians, were killed when a suicide bomber attacked a bus carrying them to the Canadian Embassy in Kabul. They — along with the 24 Nepalis who returned home — had been employed by Sabre International, a British security company, to guard the embassy.
Five other Nepalis who were injured in the attack were taken to New Delhi for treatment on Wednesday. Prem Bahadur Chhetri, Chhet Prasad Sherchan, Kumar Bahadur Gurung, Krishna Kumar Deuja and Amrit Rokaya Chhetri are now receiving medical care at Apollo Hospital. The process was underway to airlift two more seriously injured to New Delhi. But one of them succumbed to his injuries on Wednesday, according to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has condemned the Kabul attack, and extended his condolences to the victims' families.