When the state denied to meet a simple demand to form a probe commission to know the killing of his son, Nanda Prasad Adhikari preferred to die in hunger strike rather than live in an unjust state. He passed away at Bir Hospital on Monday after 329 days in fasting.

Annapurna Post daily on its front page editorial termed this is killing by state of a citizen who went for fasting for almost a year. Nanda Prasad Adhikari showed his moral courage to sacrifice even his life for the cause of universal human rights, writes Annapurna Post in its editorial.

Late Adhikari of Phujel, Gorkha district,  had been staging a fast-unto-death at Bir Hospital for the last 329 days demanding justice over the murder of his son Krishna Prasad.

As Prime Minister Sushil Koirala was on his way to take part in UN General Assembly, this was a great disappointment for him as he was supposed to plead for the peace process and constitution writing.

“We could not save him. He has died of cardio-pulmonary failure,” said Dr Swayam Prakash Pandit, director at the hospital. Pandit informed that Adhikari’s health had been deteriorating for the last four days.

Adhikari, who was 54, had been staging a hunger strike along with his wife Ganga Maya. Director Pandit said that the condition of Ganga Maya, who has been receiving treatment at the Intensive Care Unit (ICU), is stable.

The Adhikari couple had staged a fast-unto-death for the first time in July 2013. The Supreme Court on September 3, 2013 had ordered the government to either coax the Adhikari couple into breaking their fast or force-feed them. An apex court bench of Justice Prakash Osti had delivered the order in response to a writ petition filed by Advocate Ramraj Shivakoti. The Adhikari couple had ended their hunger strike on September 7, 2013 after reaching a three-point deal with the government.

Though the government claimed that arrangements were made for the relief of the Adhikari family and for taking legal action, the Adhikaris resumed their fast-unto-death again on October 24 2013.

Maoist cadres had allegedly murdered Krishna Prasad of Phujel, Gorkha at Bakulahar Chowk of Ratnanagar, Chitwan in June 2004, accusing him of working as an informant for the police.

Human rights activists had supported the Adhikari couple’s protest from the early days but later they tried to persuade them to end the fast-unto-death. However, the elder son of Adhikari couple, Nur Prasad, had persuaded his parents to continue their fast-unto-death. Some human rights activists had issued a press release criticizing Nur Prasad’s attitude then.

Human rights activist Kanak Mani Dixit said that the state should take all the blame for the death of Nanda Prasad. “We tried our best to save his life. He has lost his life in a battle for justice,” said Dixit.