A controversial politician credited with launching Nepal’s republican movement died on Wednesday aged 77 after a career of protest marked by a series of deadly bomb blasts in the capital Kathmandu.
Ramraja Prasad Singh, who pushed for the abolition of monarchy during the autocratic Panchayat regime, was handed a death sentence — never carried out — for masterminding several explosions during a day of violence in 1985.
“He died due to multiple organ failure. He was suffering from Parkinson’s disease,” said KP Singh, director of Tribhuvan University Teaching Hospital, in the capital.
Six people, including a lawmaker, died in the blasts in government offices, outside the royal palace and a luxury hotel.
But Singh’s sentence was repealed with the return of democracy in 1990 after he spent years on the run.
Despite the carnage, Singh was considered a hero by anti-royalists and the Maoist-led caretaker government announced he would be given state honours with a 13-cannon salute ahead of his cremation later on Wednesday.
Nepal’s 240-year-old Shah monarchy was abolished in 2008 after parliament voted for the country to become republican, one of the main demands of the 19-year Maoist insurgency which ended in 2006.
Nepal’s anti-monarchy bomber dies
