| Return of Bijuli |
Posted
on 02-Jun-01 01:32 AM
Taken from the NEPALI TIMES (1:42AM Eastern TIme)
Nepal wakes up in shock
As dawn broke over Kathmandu, the capital valley and the nation woke up to hear the news. And there was nothing to do but be utterly shocked by the devastating knowledge that most of the kingdom’s royal family was dead. It was just too unbelievable for most digest immediately.
Twelve hours after the massacre inside the royal palace on Friday evening, we have pieced together bits of information based on interviews with people close to the royal family, hospital sources and other witnesses. What emerges is a routine dinner of the royal clan turning in seconds into a bloody carnage that left a king, his queen, two of his children, three of his sisters, and a brother-in-law dead or dying.
According to sources close to the royal family, Crown Prince Dipendra appeared inebriated at the dinner and was told to go and lie down. He left, and reportedly returned dressed in army fatigues and full battle gear, carrying an assault rifle and an automatic pistol. After shooting down his family in a hail of bullets, the sources said he is reported to have shot himself in the temple.
Shocked palace staff rushed the dead and wounded to the Royal Nepal Army Hospital in Chhauni, where most were declared dead on arrival. Among the dead were: the 55-year-old King Birendra, 51-year-old Queen Aishwarya, Princess Sruti, Prince Nirajan, the king’s sisters Jayanti, Sharada and Shanti, and the king’s brother-in-law Kumar Khadga. Also badly injured was prince Dhirendra, and Princess Sruti’s husband Gorakh.
At the hospital, the Crown Prince himself had a feeble pulse, but the 9 mm bullet had gone right through his head. Surgeons operated on him, but Dipendra is now said to be “brain dead” and surviving only with the aid of a ventilator. Princess Shruti was reportedly the least injured, but even her small shrapnel wound had proved fatal.
Prince Gyanendra, King Birendra’s middle brother, was in Pokhara and tried to fly back, but the Super Puma helicopter sent to fetch him at midnight Friday had to turn back due to bad weather. He finally flew in from Gajuri at six in the morning and landed at Chhauni where the 11-member Royal Privy Council was about to meet. Also present at Chhauni were the Prime Minister Girija Koirala and some members of the cabinet. The hospital complex was being guarded by hundreds of soldiers.
Meanwhile, in the city Kathmandu residents gathered in small groups at street corners. Near the Royal palace, by mid-morning a quiet mass of about 10,000 grim-faced people had come together to find out what had happened to their king and queen. But official radio and television were silent about the tragic happenings of the night, only repeating a notice for all members of the Raj Parishad to gather by nine for an emergency meeting at Kantipath at nine in the morning. All FM stations in Kathmandu have been playing Hindu devotional music all morning. Only two major Nepali daily newspapers carried the news of the shootout in the royal palace.
Traumatised as they are, the remaining members of the royal family, the Raj Parishad and the government are now turning their attention to the question of succession. Family sources say the funerals are likely to take place only on Sunday.
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