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Nepalese King and Queen Cremated After Royal Massacre
KATHMANDU, June 2 (News Agencies) - The bodies of Nepal's King Birendra and Queen Aishwarya were cremated Saturday in a somber ceremony on the banks of the River Bagmati, barely 24 hours after they and other family members were apparently gunned down by their eldest son, Crown Prince Dipendra.
A military official was quoted by some news agencies as saying that Dipendra went on the shooting rampage Friday night reportedly after his mother, the queen, objected to his choice of a bride.
Sources said the prince had been declared clinically dead but was being kept breathing by a respirator at a military hospital.
Because of Dipendra's condition, his uncle, Prince Gyanendra, was named acting king by the State Council, which oversees royal affairs.
Following a lengthy funeral procession witnessed by hundreds of thousands of mourners through the streets of the capital Kathmandu, the king and queen, and their younger son Prince Nirajan, were brought to the funeral next to the city's Golden Temple.
Following the administration of the Hindu last rites under a specially erected canopy, the three bodies were placed on adjoining pyres, garlanded with flowers. A relative of the king, carrying a burning torch, circled the king's pyre three times, before applying the flames to the kindling.
As a band played the national anthem followed by the last post, a 55-gun salute, fired at one-minute intervals, rang out to mark each year of the late king's life. Torches were then placed on the pyres of the queen and prince.
The bodies of the king's only daughter, Princess Shruti, and one of his cousins, Princess Jayanti Shah, were to be cremated later in the evening at the same spot.
The ceremony was attended by Prince Gyanendra, middle brother of the late king, who had been appointed regent earlier in the day. Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala, members of his cabinet and senior military officers and palace staff were also in attendance.
"The king who saw his country through trying and difficult times is no more," intoned the commentator on state-run television, which broadcast the ceremony live. Tens of thousands of mourners had gathered on the other side of the river to watch the cremation, some of them climbing into treetops to get a better view.
The speed of the funeral, in accordance with Hindu traditions, had left the people of Nepal almost no time to digest the shocking news of the royal bloodbath that took place less than 24 hours before during a regular Friday dinner gathering at the royal palace.
The funeral procession of the five slain royals had begun five hours earlier at the military hospital to which the bodies had been taken. A mounted guard of honor led the way, with police massed bands playing somber music.
The king's body, held aloft by bare-chested brahmin priests, was covered to the neck by a saffron cloth -- his face obscured by garlands of flowers and another piece of cloth wrapped around his forehead.
As the procession passed by, weeping women threw flowers and rice colored with red powder. "I couldn't believe it when I heard the news," said student Gopendra Gautam. "I had to come here to see for myself, but I still can't really take it in."
Confusion has surrounded the circumstances of the massacre, as well as the precise number of dead and the condition of Crown Prince Dipendra, who Home Minister Ram Chandra Paudel had identified as the gunman.
As well as the five royals carried in the funeral procession, Paudel said six other people had been killed, including the king's two sisters and one of their husbands.
The crown prince, who Paudel said had finally turned the gun on himself, was officially named the new king, although he was reported to be in a deep coma in intensive care.
"I got the news by phone this morning, but my first reaction was that it was a hoax call," said social worker Shanti Mishra. "At a time when the country most needs a good leader, the king is dead."
At one point during the funeral procession, an angry section of the crowd stoned the car of Prime Minister Koirala and shouted for his resignation. Koirala is also minister of palace affairs, and there have been public calls for him to take responsibility for failing to ensure the safety of the royal family.
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