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Posted
on 04-Jun-01 09:21 AM
Who pulled the trigger?
Keshav Pradhan / Rajiv Bagchi
(Kathmandu, June 3)
SHOCK ISN’T the overriding emotion in Nepal two days after the royal family was massacred. It has been replaced by anger, disbelief, and most of all, suspicion. Everyone wants to know who was really responsible for the palace killings. And there are fewer and fewer takers for the simplistic theory that a depressed crown prince suddenly turned trigger-happy.
The dying king Dipendra will never speak again and no one is telling the people what happened on June 1.
Throughout Friday afternoon the sun played hide and seek with Kathmandu. It’d just started drizzling when Crown Prince Dipendra stepped into the picturesque Chinese-built Birendra Stadium at 3 p.m.
A great lover of sport, the chubby Prince was there to inspect the preparations for the national games, which were to be inaugurated by him on June 3. “What's this? It drizzles every time I come here,” he had told sports officials who had gathered to receive him. He even played squash for some time before setting out to attend another programme.
Barely six hours later, he turned a killer. At least that is what initial reports would have us believe. But the bloody massacre has raised more questions than it has answered. How can a person who seemed in perfect mental health only a few hours back, be so brutal that he would wipe out his entire family for the sake of his love? What were the guards doing? Most importantly, did the Crown Prince actually pull the trigger?
Nearly 36 hours after the bloodletting, these questions are there on everyone’s lips.
Let's reconstruct the events on the night of June 1. The entire royal family had gathered for dinner at the Kaski Hall inside the sprawling and heavily guarded palace premises.
As is routine during such Friday family get-togethers, the topic of discussion this time veered around to the Crown Prince’s marriage. He is supposed to have left midway, unhappy with the turn the discussions were taking. He apparently came back dressed in an army fatigue brandishing an automatic gun. Then, in fit of rage, the Crown Prince reportedly mowed down his family and other relatives.
He is then believed to have crossed over to the family temple and shot himself through the head with a pistol.
There are several loopholes in this story, according to sources. For one, how can one person kill so many at one burst? Interestingly, only the Crown Prince's immediate family members were picked as targets. It may be a mere coincidence that Prince Gyanendra was away at Pokhara.
Some quarters are also questioning the role of the King’s security guards. A strong posse is posted inside the palace and it is unlikely that they heard nothing of what was going on inside the dinner hall. And when the mayhem was over, how did they allow the Crown Prince to walk over to the palace temple?
Is it possible that the man now on his deathbed did not pull the trigger?
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| ashu |
Posted
on 04-Jun-01 10:08 AM
>Who pulled the trigger?
>Let's reconstruct the events on the night of
>June 1.
>As is routine during such Friday family get-
>togethers, the topic of discussion this time
>veered around to the Crown Prince’s marriage.
> He is supposed to have left midway, unhappy
>with the turn the discussions were taking.
>He apparently came back dressed in an army
>fatigue brandishing an automatic gun. Then,
>in fit of rage, the Crown Prince reportedly
>mowed down his family and other relatives.
Here's another version I was told:
I repeat: This is what I was told,
and may not be the absolute truth,
so take this with a grain of noon.
Dipendra was a skilled marksman.
He was also an immensely likable/sociable guy.
That he would snap like this is both incredible
and shocking. But this version contends
that he did snap -- or 'shaigonged' --
emotionally.
True, Dipendra came down dressed in Army fatigues.
When the Royal Family gathers in one room at the Palace,
the ADCs and the security guards do not hover over them.
They main a close distance. And so, the ADCs were in an
adjoining room. Dipendra locked the ADC' room from the
outside upon his entering the family room.
Dipendra came in, dressed in Army fatigues and brandishing two guns. With everyone looking at him, he took aim of his machine gun at his father, and shot him in one rapid fire.
Dipendra walked out.
All hell broke loose. Everyone present in the room
rushed over to the shot King -- with some, such as that
coward Paras starting to flee the scene.
The Baithak is supposed to be an L-shaped one. In the
other part of that L-shaped room were Queen Mother
Ratna with her great-grand daughters.
Dipendra stepped out momentarily, loaded his gun, came back in
and shot again at the direction of the King, which hit several
more of his relatives. They were all hit from the hip-above.
Dipendra then took aim of his mother, who was crouching
against the corner of a wall. Nirajan came in the middle to
save the mother from his brother's aim, and was showered with
bullets.
There are uncomfirmed reports that waiters and servers
present in the room have also been shot dead.
All these took about thirty to forty seconds.
What happened after this is unclear: Someone shouted,
"What are you doing?" to Dipendra, and he aimed at that
person. By this time, all his bullets were gone.
Then the whole thing dawned on him.
After that, he sort of came to his senses, and,
after a moment's pause, took out another gun and
pointed at his own head.
By this time, the ADCs and the security guards came running
in from around the room where they had been held locked.
They are supposed to have smashed a couple of doors/windows
to gert to the Baithak, and, the theory is, one of them shot Dipendra from the behind after Dipendra had already shot
himself.
Another angle is: Dipendra then ran out, and rushed over to
the temple that's on the palace ko premises, and then shot himself.
If the killings were indeed done by Dipendra, then the only charitable explanation I can come up with that Dipendra got,
what I would call, 'shaigonged' -- snapped emotionally to a
great destruction. In other words, Dipendra was not himself
when he did the killings. He was being momentarily insane.
(Perhaps telephone logs could confirm whether he had spoken
to the girl in question -- Devyani Rana -- just before
the dinner.)
Again, I repeat: This is a version I have heard from
a source I would characterize as quite reliable.
My regret is that the beneficiary, as it were,
of all this are: Paras and his father. Who knows,
together they may start soon nailing Nepal's
democracy shut.
>There are several loopholes in this story,
>according to sources. For one, how can one
>person kill so many at one burst?
He is alleged to have used a machine gun.
>Interestingly, only the Crown Prince's
>immediate family members were picked as
>targets. It may be a mere coincidence that
>Prince Gyanendra was away at Pokhara.
Until further evidence comes, let's assume
this to be a coincidence. Gyanendra's wife
Komal (i.e. Paras's mother) was shot too and
is now in serious conditions.
>Some quarters are also questioning the role
>of the King’s security guards. A strong
>posse is posted inside the palace and it is
>unlikely that they heard nothing of what was
>going on inside the dinner hall.
They did hear the mayhem, and rushed as
quickly as possible. Because the whole thing
ended in such a fraction of a minute, there
wasn't much they could do.
>And when
>the mayhem was over, how did they allow the
>Crown Prince to walk over to the palace
>temple?
That Dipendra walked over to the temple is
not clear.
>Is it possible that the man now on his
>deathbed did not pull the trigger?
Who knows but the Gods in heaven.
oohi
ashu
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