Everybody knows how brutal the maoists are and this one is certainly no less heinous than any others.Specially for the slain had done something good for the society. Upsetting news before going to sleep.


Pundit Narayan Prasad Pokhrel shot dead (9:40 a.m.)

A group of unidentified gunmen have shot dead renowned Hindu preacher and president of World Hindu Federation Nepal national committee, Pundit Narayan Prasad Pokhrel, in south-western district of Rupandehi early Friday.

Police in Butwal told Nepalnews this morning that unidentified gunmen forced Pokhrel out of the house at Dudhrakshya VDC-5, Rampur, in the district Friday morning and opened fire at him. They immediately fled from the scene. Pokhrel succumbed to injuries at 6:40 a. m.

Senior police officials have left for the scene of the incident and details are still being awaited, the police said.

A Butwal-based journalist quoted eye witnesses as saying that some half a dozen assailants arrived on motorbikes and fired over two dozen rounds of bullets targeting Pokhrel. A junior colleague of Pokhrel was also injured during the attack and has been taken to hospital for treatment.

Nobody has claimed responsibility for the incident as yet.

A brilliant orator, 46-year-old Pokhrel had earned fame for reciting ?Sri Madbhagavat Purana,? a holy Hindu scripture, and helped raise tens of millions of rupees from devotees for charities. A number of schools, hospitals, houses for elderly citizens and roads have been constructed across the country over the past decade from the donations collected from over 1,000 religious functions conducted by Pokhrel.

Pokhrel was reciting week-long ?Sri Madbhavat Purana? at the Dudhrakshya VDC to raise donations for a local campus at Rampur. nepalnews.com by May 06 05

Although a ladies man, Narayan Pokhrel was a great orator, he could get all the "Gopis" dance to his tunes and most of all he could raise a lot of money for social works. Like the one he did near Pokhara to build a hospital.

I had heard his problem with the maoists before, but never thought they would kill him. I guess he did not pay his dues. Maoists are cruel, there has to be some way to stop this barbarism.

another sad story...may he rest in peace.

I also have had heard about N P Pokharel but never got chance to see him physically. The friends who met him had told me about his influence to motivate and convenience audience.

As "kisr" noted, I also had heard that he also had some problems with the girls and Maoists. I think the incident will be more clear by tomorrow morning whether that was done by maoists.
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OK

That is brutual, this guy was a fine orator, got a chance to her him when he was in Bharatpur. He brought hinduism closer to the masses, his naration on Hindu philosophy in common man's language was highly praised by those who attended his sermons.
If, true this is a sad news, and another blunder on the part of the maoists.

sorry corrcetion--hear him

Whether one is a devout Hindu or a skeptical Hindu or even an atheist, one has to say that:

Pundit Pokharel was a likable, hard-working, jolly priest who transformed otherwise sleepy and austere religious events such as "saptaha" and "yagya" into massively whirling, community-binding, solace-offering fund-raising activities . . . to build schools, hospitals and community rest-houses across Nepal.

[ASIDE: His personality was so charming that I can't help thinking that had he been
born in America as a Christian, he would, by now, have been presiding over a multi-million dollar ko mega-church somewhere in California, hosting a cable TV show on
why God loves you no matter what, published two best-selling books on how to
save your soul, and visited White House many times to bless GWB . . .]

Pundit Pokharel made the best of what was available to him in Nepal. Through the dint of his hard work, luck, personality and religious devotion to what he did best, he became too popular, too successful with a following of his own . . . and such a person is always a threat to Maoism (not to mention, conservative Hindu stalwarts too).

And the Maoists (assuming it's them as per the news report) had to finish him off.

May his soul rest in peace!

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A cynical observation (about which I hope I will be proven wrong):

I wish Pundit Pokharel had at least gone to the Ministry of Communications and gotten his "journalist badge", even if he never wrote anything in any newspaper.

This way, he would have died a "journalist's death", and Nepali journalists (led by Bishnu Nisthuri et al) could therefore claim him as one of their own, and start creating a
massive halla to have the Maoists say: "we are sorry"!

Likewise, I would NOT expect human rights people to create halla-khalla over Pundit Pokharel's death too.

That is why, his death -- the death of a man who raised millions of rupees for community activities across Nepal-- remains just another fresh statistic in our Land of the Dead!

oohi
ashu