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Posted
on 03-Jun-01 10:26 PM
KING DIPENDRA DEAD
Kathmandu, June 4 - King Dipendra, the uncrowned king of Nepal, died very early Monday at an army hospital in Kathmandu, palace and hospital sources said.
The death is expected to be officially announced during the course of Monday after a meeting of the Raj Parishad, and Prince Regent Gyanendra may be declared King Monday.
King Dipendra had been in a coma since Friday night, after the Royal Palace shootout in which nine members of the royal family, including King Birendra and Queen Aishwarya were killed. On Sunday, the Raj Parishad declared Crown Prince Dipendra king and named Gyanendra Prince Regent.
When Gyanendra is declared king, it will be the second time in history that he will have been crowned. In November 1950, the then Rana prime minister had made him king at the age of four after King Tribhuvan and King Mahendra secretly left Kathmandu for India to return in February 1951 to restore the House of the Shahs in Nepal. Not counting Gyanendra's brief kingship then, he will be the 12th Shah king of Nepal in a dynasty that stretches back to Prithvi Narayan Shah, the unifier of modern Nepal.
The massacre on Friday has now wiped out the entire family of King Birendra: his wife, two sons and daughter. Neither Dipendra and Nirajan were married. Princess Sruti has two daughters, and her husband was wounded in the attack.
Tensions have risen because of street demonstrations by mourning youth in support of monarchy on Sunday and more protests are expected on Monday as the news of the death of Dipendra spreads. In one incident outside the Royal Palace on Sunday, youths chased foreign journalists and raised slogans against international television news that had said Dipendra had killed his family.
Royal Palace spokesman Chiran Thapa told BBC World on Monday morning that the shooting was an accident, following the official line announced Sunday morning by Gyanendra that the deaths occurred because of a "'sudden discharge of an automatic weapon". Domestic news broadcasts in Nepal are only official, but print media have been publishing graphic eye-witness accounts of what transpired inside the palace that fateful Friday, first of June, 2001.
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