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Uneasy calm in Nepal

A day after the report of the official probe into the June 1 palace massacre was made public, people in the Himalayan Kingdom are slowly coming to terms with its findings that their late Crown Prince Dipendra gunned down his father King Birendra and other royals, even as the media and political leaders appealed for sanity.

''The situation in Kathmandu valley is normal and no untoward incident has been reported so far. But the police force has been put on high alert, '' Superintendent of Police Sagar Thapalia told PTI.

Shops, which had downed their shutters early Thursday evening apprehending violence, opened Friday with people going about their normal tasks amidst high vigil mounted by the city police.

Though the findings of the report was on expected lines, people in the valley, who had earlier refused to buy the theory of Dipendra's involvement, are now saying ''it could be true.''

''We knew it was coming but why did they have to cast aspersions on a dead man, that he was an alcoholic and drug addict,'' wondered a sad Aanil Shrestha, a cyber cafe employee in upmarket Thamel.

"It is not easy to digest but how long can you disbelieve?" asked Shamsher Thapa, a security guard at a hotel in Khichakhopri.

That the findings did not specify either the provocation behind Dipendra's act and how he himself was killed is the subject of heated debate in every street corner, though people by large do not anticipate any violence.

In a front-page editorial, the influential English daily The Kathmandu Post too pointed out, "The panel - at least from its press conference - did not attribute a motive for the killings. And this will ultimately have to be revealed."

The paper, however, added, "The panel has established without refute that he (Dipendra) sprayed the bullets. The nation, however, has to move forward and it behoves political parties not to politicise the whole sad tragedy."

"Indeed, the truth is always hard to digest and the naming of Dipendra as the one who pulled the trigger that left so many dead is one such truth," it said.

While the Communist Party of Nepal (United Marxist-Leninist), whose leader Madhav Nepal had earlier resigned from the probe panel citing constitutional procedures, has refused to comment on the findings and has convened an emergency meeting of the party politbureau to discuss the report, the Rashtriya Prajatantra Party urged people to take the report "positively".

"The need of the hour is to remain calm and co-operate with the government," RPP leader and former foreign minister Kamal Thapa told PTI.

The Kathmandu Post quoted former prime minister and senior leader of the Nepali Congress Sher Bahadur Deuba as having said, "There is now no doubt that it was the Crown Prince who was behind this incident. I urge all Nepalese to come together at this hour to work for the betterment of multi-party democracy and constitutional monarchy."

Death of a Monarch: The Complete Coverage

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