Girija Prasad Koirala

Girija Prasad Koirala’s last rites were performed with full state honours at Pashupati Aryaghat on Sunday evening. His daughter Sujata Koirala lit his funeral pyre on the banks of the Bagmati River at 7:50 p.m.

Tens of thousands who participated in the four-hour-long cortege, reached Aryagat at 6.50 p.m. passing through Sundhara, Ratnapark, Bagbazaar, Dilli Bazaar, Maitidevi, Purano Baneshwor, Battisputali and Gaushala.

Prior to the funeral procession, Koirala lay in state at Dasharath Stadium so that people could pay their last respects. A mammoth crowd had lined up in serpentine queues outside the stadium since early Sunday.

Koirala’s body was taken to Nepali Congress party headquarters at Sanepa from his daughter’s residence at Mandikhatar, where he breathed his last on Saturday afternoon.

When the vehicle carrying Koirala’s body arrived at the party headquarters Sanepa at 8 a.m. along with the proce-ssion, party members greeted it with the slogan, “long live Girijababu”.

After keeping his body at the party office for 15 minutes, it was taken to Dasharath Stadium. All along the way, party workers and onlookers threw garlands and flowers at the truck.

The crowd had changed into a human sea by the time his body arrived at Dasharath Stadium. Thousands of people were already waiting at the gate. “I have never seen such a huge gathering,” said Suresh Shreshta, a businessman in Tripureshwor.

After Koirala’s body was kept at the stadium, Prime Minsiter Madhav Kumar Nepal draped it with the national flag, while Nepal Army presented the guard of honour.

As people kept flooding into the stadium, the duration for paying last respects was extended by an hour. The flow of mourners continued for seven hours, according to Police Spokesman Bigyan Raj Sharma, who said some 400,000 people paid their respects.

Representatives of the international community, prominent leaders from India, including Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee and Indian External Affairs Minister S.M. Krishna also paid their respects to the departed soul.

Bookmark/Share it: