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Nepali father on hunger strike seeking justice for son’s murder dies
Doctors at Bir Hospital, where the couple had been admitted for past several months, confirmed that Nanda Prasad Adhikari, who had gone without food for 332 days, died around 5 pm.
An elderly Nepali man who was on a hunger strike since last year seeking justice for his murdered son died at a Kathmandu hospital on Monday evening.
Doctors at Bir Hospital, where the couple had been admitted for past several months, confirmed that Nanda Prasad Adhikari, who had gone without food for 332 days, died around 5 pm.
The condition of Adhikari’s wife, Ganga Maya, who is also on hunger strike since last year, is stated to be critical.
The couple had been kept alive with intravenous fluids, but doctors at the hospital had given up hopes of them staying alive since August, as their bodies couldn’t absorb nutrients.
The couple started their strike in October last seeking arrest of the murderers of their teenage son Krishna Prasad who was allegedly killed in 2004 by Maoists during Nepal’s civil war.
A case was lodged and the accused named, but no action was taken.
The couple had earlier undertaken a 47-day fast last year. They ended it after assurances from the government and arrest of one of the accused. But when the accused was released after 25 days, they resumed the fast.
The couple’s plight had forced Prime Minister Sushil Koirala to request them to end their fast. But both refused. International organizations including the UN had also urged for a “prompt and effective investigation”.
Nepal’s civil war, which claimed over 13,000 lives, ended in 2006. But till date no effective mechanism has been set up to provide justice to those families who lost their dear ones.
The commissions on truth and reconciliation and the disappeared are yet to be constituted. Even those convicted of murder in some cases by courts are walking free due to political patronage.
