Nepal yesterday struggled to come to terms with the bizarre death of King Birendra and seven members of the royal family. "He was the only king I knew and I cannot believe that he is dead," Rama Gurung, a Kathmandu college student, said in the capital yesterday. "Mass deaths of this kind can happen anywhere, but it is flabbergasting that it happened to the royal family of a kingdom," journalist Kanak Dixit said. "We have lost a father figure who many thought of as the reincarnation of Vishnu, the Hindu god of creation," said Rajesh Shreshtha, a shopkeeper. "His loss is irreparable." It is believed King Birendra's son, Crown Prince Dipendra, opened fire on the family after a dinner in the royal palace on Friday night turned into a bitter argument about his marriage plans. When confronted minutes later by palace officials he shot himself in the head with a pistol. He is now in a coma.
Many people gathered in groups in the capital, however, tended to agree with the Prince Regent Gyanendra's explanation of the royal deaths. In a nation-wide broadcast Gyanendra said the incident took place "after an automatic weapon suddenly exploded" killing and injuring members of the royal family. But many other Nepalese were angry at the lack of official transparency surrounding the deaths. "It's absurd that he expects us to believe that an automatic gun spun around a room firing by itself until the royal family were dead," said one secondary school teacher. "They are insulting our intelligence," she added. Hundreds of Nepalese yesterday lined up outside barber shops in deserted market places to have their heads shaved in keeping with the Hindu tradition of mourning an elder's death. "Nepal never expected this would happen in their wildest dreams," said one.
With the country facing so many economic and social problems this tragedy could not have come at a worse time, he declared. Tourism, one of Nepal's largest revenue earners, would be affected by these deaths and the international publicity they prompted, he added.
Officials conceded that for the moment national mourning had prevented any major protest, although some protesters had demanded the Prime Minister, Mr Girija Prasad Koirala's, resignation for failing to protect their king. But they added that grief could turn into outrage unless the enigma surrounding King Birendra's death is satisfactorily answered.