Home Minister Gurung Announces Reopening of Royal Palace Massacre File

KATHMANDU — Minutes after taking charge as the new Home Minister, Sudan Gurung announced that the government would reopen the file related to the 2001 Narayanhiti Royal Palace massacre. The announcement, while politically high-profile, remained thin on immediate administrative substance; Gurung did not elaborate on critical parameters, including who would head such an investigation, its official time frame, or the specific terms of reference governing the fresh probe.

The directive revives the ghost of Nepal’s most devastating modern tragedy. On June 1, 2001, King Birendra, Queen Aishwarya, and altogether ten members of the royal family and guests present at a customary Friday night dinner were killed inside the palace.

A subsequent high-level investigative team, led by the then-Parliament Speaker Taranath Ranabhat, had officially concluded that Crown Prince Dipendra was the sole killer behind the massacre, asserting that he turned the weapon on himself after the shooting. Dipendra succumbed to his injuries at the military hospital on June 3. Following his demise, the Raj Parishad—the constitutional advisory body to the king – declared Prince Gyanendra, who stood third in the line of succession, as the new monarch on June 4.