We share the grief of our Nepali brethren. May god almighty grant peace to all the departed noble souls. It is better to have loved and lost than to have never loved at all

Shishir Mehrotra

Let our beloved King, Queen, and Princess Shruti and Prince Nirajan's souls rest in peace. We will always love you and you will be in our hearts. We will always remember the good deeds you have done all over Nepal.

Namkha Sherpa, Nawang Sherpa
and Calvin Sherpa

I am a student of class 12. As a Nepali, I, and all Nepalis, should be given proper information about our royal family. I am among many who feel that the newspapers and the palace are not giving proper information. At this time of great shock and grief, some of our people are slandering the palace. What we don't know or understand is that other members of the royal family were also present at the site of murder and were also shot at and wounded. The royal family is important to all Nepalis and we have a right to know what happened. Times have changed and we cannot still have a bunch of sycophants covering the palace and hiding the facts. Can't these sycophants see that they are responsible for a massive security lapse? I hope your newspaper will give us the detailed truth unlike the other papers.

Shavana Rana

I was stunned, shocked and personally bereaved on hearing the horrible information on the death of Their Majesties and other members of the royal family. For Nepal, and its friends in Russia and elsewhere, it is a tragedy of Himalayan and Shakespearean dimensions. Please accept my most profound and heartfelt condolences in this hour of grief. My four years as the Russian Ambassador in Nepal will forever remain in my mind as the best period of my professional life. Never could I conceal the fact that I have always had a soft corner in my heart for your beautiful country. As dean of the diplomatic corps, I had so many occasions to meet Their Majesties and all the slain members of the royal family. I am proud to say that we became good personal friends. That is why the tragedy is of great resonance for me. As a mark of Russia's and my highest esteem, admiration and affection for the memory of Their Majesties, the national flag of the Russian Federation will fly half-mast for three days at our Embassy in New Delhi. Let God give your wonderful people the power to overcome the tragedy in wisdom and harmony.

Alexander M. Kadakin,
Ambassador of the Russian Federation in India

As a friend of your beautiful country, I am choked by the tragic death of your king and queen and members of the royal family. I hope happier times will return to the Nepali people and that this karma will be purified. I pray for you to Lord Buddha . May better times return and may the souls of the killed have peace.

Leo Leemans (Jampa Gyatso)
The Netherlands

I want to pay my respects to all the royal family members who were shot dead. I was shocked when I read the news in the Washington Post.

Unhappy in the USA

I was shocked by the news, as every Nepali is right now. King Birendra was a thorough gentleman and Nepal won't get a better king than him.

Rajeev Mishra

While all the dailies went to sleep or to mourning the fifteen hours after the royal family was killed, you did a great job by putting at least three bulletins on Saturday. But Dipendra, the king? The person who, according to CNN, the BBC and everyone, was responsible for the tragedy? Just imagine: If I were the king of Bhutan, would I send congratulations to the new king for ascending to the throne after having allegedly killed his father? Is Nepal turning out to be the biggest joke on earth? The biggest yoyoland?
Too ashamed to use my name in Thailand

Thanks for keeping all of the far-flung Nepal community informed about this unbelievable tragedy. As we receive bits and pieces of this horrible news in our various distant lands, it is encouraging to know we have a credible and sensitive source of intelligence.

Jeff Greenwald
Oakland, CA

This is just to say "Thank you" for providing the updates on the massacre... I followed nepalitimes.com all Saturday, and am simply grateful for being able to access the most reliable source of news at the most shocking of moments.

Jane Ong

At this hour of extreme shock and despair over the news of the tragic massacre of our royal family in Nepal, there is hardly any newspaper on the net with this news. You are the only ones who covered this online for us Nepalis living abroad. Thanks for serving your purpose well and making us part of the broad Nepali community in Nepal and abroad. My sincere thanks to you for this commendable contribution.

Pradeep Bhandari
UK

My heart goes out to the decent, hardworking people of Nepal who have had to endure so many problems over the last decade and do not deserve this tragedy.

Carol Pavesi
USA

I would like to thank the Nepali Times for its highly professional coverage of the tragic death of King Birendra and so many members of his family, and for making the coverage accessible on the web. I would also like to express my sincere sympathy to you in this time of sadness. I have every confidence that the magnificent Nepali people will survive this crisis, and will merit the world's admiration for their strength in the face of disaster.

Robert L Miller
Chicago, USA

Thank you very much for telling first what is happening in Nepal today. Your pages told us here in Europe what happened last night the royal palace. All friends of Nepal abroad are with you.

Reijo H?rk?nen
Finland

Our condolences to the people of Nepal. This is a big tragedy. We are very sorry.
Abdullahi and Jeanet

This is a national crime that all Nepalis must protest. We are among those who live in foreign countries and expect the media will be faithful, and not allow a repeat of 1846. The news media should stay faithful to the people and the nation and tell the truth about this crime.

All Nepalis in China

We will be sorrowful about this national tragedy for some time. We expect a thorough investigative report on this tragedy. We await your forthcoming issue, and request you to not be affected by circumstances that may arise due to the untimely demise of our beloved king. We hope no one will forward their selfish motives in this time of crisis when we face the most unfortunate dilemma of our age.

Surendra Raut Chhetry

Our heartfelt condolences on the sudden and untimely loss of our king, queen and other members of the royal family in Nepal. May the departed souls rest in peace.

Nepalese Association of South Africa
Eastern Cape

I wish to mourn with my countrymen over the sudden death of Their Late Majesties in a killing spree. As everybody else, I am deeply shocked and horrified by the news. I have wept on and off after hearing what is the saddest news for me, and all people who love the king and want the institution as a symbol of national unity and integrity. This is a time to be united, and bury our differences if there is to be a ray of hope and dedication to the future. The road ahead is challenging. It demands courage, hard work, and perseverance. We need to hold on to our dreams of freedom, civilisation, develop-ment. Let us give all our support to the king and the government.

To our king: This is the time to uphold the system within the framework of our constitution and to continue what has already been done and what needs greater attention.

To the government: Pardon the Maoists. Contain corruption, take the opposition parties into confidence and pay a real tribute to the late king through efforts to uplift the people.

To the Maoists: Try to see hope without a weapon. See what others want and have to say.

To the UML and other opposition parties: be mature enough to form the government by winning the confidence of people and not merely by street demonstrations, chakka jams and Nepal bandhs.
Let us pray to God to give us hope and ability to transform our dreams into reality. This will be the greatest tribute to our late king.

Ramesh Chandra Khanal
Utah State University, USA.

Nepal is going through the worst crisis it has ever faced. The only way we can come through this is by trusting and working with each other. The 22 million Nepali people have the right to know the details of Friday night's palace killing. If the government and the king keep 22 million people in dark then there is no trust. I hope and pray that the truth will come out quickly.

"Mero Babu"

We learnt the news of the King and Queen's death after about 30 attempts to read our email in the town of Xam Neua in northeastern Laos. Xam Neua is a little like Mugling amidst hills with khoriyas-just a little larger. It was around 6.45 am Nepali time when the news stunned us. Now, everyday, one of us goes to the neighbour's telephone and tries for about an hour to get on the Internet. Opening the Nepalnews site and saving it as quickly as possible had become part of our daily ritual.

We wondered who was responsible for this? Tuning in to a news station on a Chinese-made radio with compressed shortwave was no less an effort than connecting to email. We managed to tune in to the BBC for the 11 o'clock news. And immediately we felt inferior, let down. This was another event for the Northern media to cover the South the way they are used to. We were ashamed that this person they said was responsible for the killings was to be our king. Our thoughts turned to the crown prince's love: we were concerned for the girl's security and the horrific situation she is in.

We talked about royal families. Will the institution of royalty ever be liberal or open? Is it outdated, and so on. Nepal is unprepared for a constitutional crisis without a king. We don't have a problem with Gyanendra, but are not too positive about King Gyanendra's notorious son Paras, who will probably be the crown prince and future king if the monarchy continues.

Is there greater feudality and conservatism than we have seen in Nepal in the last few days? As we heard the news, we thought, "we never improve": the silence from the palace, our deputy prime minister not being accountable to the people and keeping the truth from them when the foreign media was giving the whole world the same story. At least he could have told us that the media may not be telling the truth. Even the Maoists were hesitant to tell the truth-that it was an accident with consequences for our political future. This crisis has revealed to us what we are as a nation, whether royalty, Maoist, or people like us who get worked up in vain. From the bottom of our hearts we send our condolences to our chaotic home nation.

Teeka Ram Bhattarai, Samita Pradhan,
Bideha Agam and Srijana Shrestha
Laos

I'm very sorry to hear about the death of King Birendra and Queen Aishwarya. I am shocked and sad. I believe that the family didn't die. They went back to the paradise they came from some years ago and they will live forever there.
May the lord Pashupatinath bless us all!

LongQi
Hainan Province, China

Deepest regrets for this terrible tragedy, and prayers for peace in Nepal in the troubled days to come. Jaya Nepal.

Thomas Lloyd

We send our heartfelt condolences to all the Nepali people. We should wait with patience for the outcome of the investigation. We expect a truthful, honest and clear report from your publication.

Beena Pant
Philippines

The last few days have seen an erosion of public confidence and every Nepali citizen's constitutional right to information of public importance. An impartial and trustworthy investigation by the official probe panel depends upon preservation of all evidence, even if religion dictates otherwise. In a situation of national emergency, the citizens' trust is paramount, and cannot be gained through news blackouts and curfews.

Nepal Chintan
Concerned Nepalis in Boston