Curfew imposed in Kathmandu to end riots
Curfew imposed in Kathmandu to end riots
KATHMANDU (Reuters): Rioting broke out in Nepal's capital on Monday just hours after a new king was crowned following the massacre of almost the entire royal family.
Armed police used teargas and batons to hold back an angry mob surging towards the royal palace clamoring to know how King Birendra, Queen Aishwarya and six of their closest relatives were killed last Friday night.
Authorities quickly imposed an overnight curfew and warned police could shoot anyone caught violating it.
Although newly crowned King Gyanendra promised a full investigation, Nepalis said they were angry that no-one had yet come up with a convincing explanation for Friday's bloodbath.
Officials first blamed the Crown Prince, who was fatally wounded and died on Monday, and then said the royals died after an automatic weapon accidentally exploded.
"What has happened is not good. There are a lot of unanswered questions as to how the king, queen and Crown Prince Dipendra died," said one shopkeeper, who declined to be named.
"It is difficult to believe that the son shot his parents. There is more than meets the eye," he added.
Youths, many with heads shaved in the Hindu mark of mourning, burned tires and shouted slogans demanding the truth. Several hundred people on motorbikes, carrying big portraits of the king and queen, briefly joined the mob at the palace and then whizzed off again to another part of the city.
Soldiers were brought in to guard the palace gates, and the crowd retreated behind police barriers, leaving a litter of shoes and slippers on the street.
Birendra's son and heir Dipendra died on Monday after being in a coma since Friday night's massacre.
He was to be cremated later on Monday in a lonely funeral with the curfew expected to keep away all but official mourners.
"During the curfew period, people should not go out of their homes or compound," the Kathmandu district administration office said in a notice read over state radio. "It will be enforced from 4 p.m. (5 p.m. in Jakarta) today until Tuesday morning."
"If anyone violates the curfew, police can imprison them for one month or even shoot," the radio said.
Officials had initially suggested that Dipendra had shot his family after what media reports said was a family row over his choice of a bride. But they later said they did not know what had happened behind the walls of the palace.
Ballistics experts said the latest official explanation of an automatic gun which exploded by accident was implausible.
"I have never heard of an automatic weapon going off by itself before," said Paul Beaver, defense analyst at British military publication company Jane's.
Dipendra had been proclaimed king despite the coma on Saturday and on his death on Monday, Gyanendra was named Nepal's third king in four days.
Gyanendra, who was out of town at the time of the killings, was crowned in a hastily convened ceremony at the old Monkey Gate palace -- the traditional seat of the ruling Shah dynasty.
Drizzle fell on the ceremony as an elderly royal priest placed a white-plumed golden crown on Gyanendra's head.
Clad in traditional Nepali dress -- a short kurta and cream colored pants and jacket -- the 54-year-old king sat on a raised golden throne with a carved head of the king cobra.
He later left in a royal chariot drawn by six white horses led by a military band and red-liveried cavalry.
Thousands of spectators lined the three km procession route, some clapping but most looking somber. King Gyanendra sat unsmiling, occasionally nodding to the crowd.
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