Investigators of Nepal's royal massacre have been given for a four-day extension to complete their work after failing to meet today's deadline.
New King Gyanendra has promised the country an explanation of the killings after angry mourners rioted a week ago in the streets around the royal palace. Two people died in the unrest and police imposed several curfews.
Many Nepalese do not believe that Crown Prince Dipendra gunned down his parents, the king and queen, and seven other royals. Prince Dipendra then fatally shot himself, according to the accounts.
The palace-appointed investigators, Supreme Court Chief Justice Keshav Prasad Upadhaya and House Speaker Taranath Ranabhat, interviewed four injured survivors for at least five hours yesterday at a heavily guarded army hospital.
The survivors are King Gyanendra's wife, Queen Komal, his sister, Princess Shobha Shahi, Gorakh Shumshere, whose wife, Princess Shruti, and her father, King Birendra, died in the massacre and Ketaki Chester, a distant royal cousin.
After the killings, a comatose Prince Dipendra was declared king even though he was on life support for three days before dying. King Gyanendra, younger brother of King Birendra, took the throne when Prince Dipendra died.
King Gyanendra's unpopularity and the often clumsy attempts of the palace and the government to manage the scarce information about the royal killings has triggered suspicion among Nepalese about what really happened.
Many suspect that King Gyanendra and his son, Paras, were somehow involved in the killings. Paras was at the gathering, but escaped unscathed. The new king was absent.
The motive for the killings remains a mystery. There have been widespread reports of tension between King Dipendra and his parents over the woman he wanted to marry. The king and queen considered the prince's girlfriend, Devyani Rana, to be of a lower clan, palace sources said.
PA