Royal members told to speak only to panel

KATHMANDU, JUNE 9. Nepal's royal palace today tried to stop witnesses going public with the accounts of last week's massacre as officials said one royal family member could be reprimanded for his version of the slaughter.

Officials said they wanted the witnesses to speak only to the investigators to prevent a repeat of the riots that broke out as people struggled to come to terms with an official explanation of the killings as an accident.

The widely circulated Kathmandu Post newspaper today said the witnesses had been asked to ``maintain silence'' over the killings.

Conspiracy theorists

Mr. Lila Mani Pokhrel, an opposition member of Parliament and the general secretary, the United People's Front, told a mass gathering that the Government was trying to cover up the matter. ``I don't believe the Crown Prince is the murderer. There is a conspiracy at work,'' he said.

A former palace staff also said he did not subscribe to the official version. Speaking to a television channel in New Delhi, Mr. Sanu Bhai Dangal, who had worked in the palace for over 35 years said, ``I don't think that Dipendra did it . He was of a gentle nature.''

Meanwhile, the two-man high-powered commission probing the massacre continued for the second day its fact-finding mission. The commission races against a three-day deadline set by King Gyanendra. The Supreme Court chief, Mr. Justice Keshav Prasad Upadhyaya and the Speaker of the Pratinidhi Sabha, Mr. Taranath Ranabhat, on the second day of their ``formal sittings'', visited the site of massacre and interviewed the royal family relatives.

Meanwhile, life continued to limp towards normalcy in the Kathmandu valley. Normally, Saturday is a holiday here. But after a five-day shutdown following the black Friday massacre, commercial establishments opened their shutters for business.

Thackeray' remark flayed

The Shiv Sena chief, Mr. Bal Thackeray's suggestion on providing military assistance to Nepal, if necessary, in the wake of the palace killings, has drawn flak both from the political parties and the press here.

``The killings are an internal matter of Nepal and we are quite capable of handling the situation. We do not need any external assistance,'' a senior leader of the Communist Party of Nepal, Mr. Jhalnath Khanal said.

Mr. Arun Subedi, chief of the Nepal Shiv Sena, said, ``I do not want to comment on his theory of Pakistani involvement. It is for the probe panel to decide, but we do not want any military assistance from India.'' Some eveningers in Nepal carried the news item with Thackeray's photographs. They advised the Sena chief not to question the kingdom's sovereignty. - Reuters, PTI

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Shahi disappears

KATHMANDU, JUNE 9. Mystery surrounds the disappearance of Captain Shahi, a close relative of the royal family. While informed sources said that Capt. Shahi had been taken into custody and was being questioned by the Army for speaking to the press, there was no official confirmation or denial of reports which appeared in the local media in this regard.

Officials linked to the investigation panel directed their ire against Captain Shahi for speaking at a hastily organised news conference on Thursday.

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