Officials began investigating Nepal's royal massacre yesterday by examining fingerprints on the weapons that killed King Birendra and nine family members. They are expected to finalise their report early next week. The investigation was delayed by the resignation of one member of the committee.
Nepal's military began a court of inquiry into the actions of one of its officers who provided an eyewitness account of last week's massacre.
Army doctor Capt Rajiv Shahi, son-in-law of the slain king's brother, told a press conference on Thursday that Prince Dipendra had deliberately shot his entire family with an assault rifle before turning the gun on himself.
"If the army knew, he would not have been allowed to do it," [talk to the press] a military official said.
Palace officials denied King Gyanendra - the dead monarch's younger brother - knew that Capt Shahi would meet journalists at the hospital. They claimed to have been shocked at seeing him on Indian television, giving a graphic account of the killings. "The security people (at the hospital) thought the journalists were civilians coming to sign the condolence book," a palace official said.
"We are concerned with evidence corroborated by facts and not by anything anybody says", Mr Taranath Ranabhat, one of the inquiry team, said. Nepal's Foreign Minister, Mr Chakra Prasad Bartola, also castigated eyewitnesses for going public with their accounts.
Meanwhile, life in Kathmandu returned to normal after a week of rioting against the new King Gyanendra.
Groups of protesters marched through the streets demanding the release of the editor and two publishers of the Kantipur newspaper, arrested earlier this week on charges of treason for publishing an article questioning the role of King Gyanendra in the killings and exhorting the army to mutiny.
