An activist dies

KATHMANDU – The face of Nepal’s popular anti-monarchy protests – a diminutive, 88-year-old village woman who repeatedly braved tear gas and water cannon – has died after being hit by a motorcycle, her family said yesterday.

Chhaya Devi Parajuli (pictured above during a February 9 protest) was an ordinary member of the Nepali Congress, the biggest political party in the Himalayan nation, who came to Kathmandu from her east Nepal village in 2002 when King Gyanendra first sacked the elected prime minister. Since then, she was at the forefront of almost every demonstration in the Nepali capital against the king, who took absolute power in 2005 saying he was acting to crush a Maoist insurgency.Parajuli, a short, frail woman who always sported white or yellow sandalwood paste on her forehead, was hit several times by tear gas shells and water cannon and arrested 35 times for her anti-monarch protests on the dusty streets of Kathmandu.”I am not afraid,” Parajuli told Reuters during one protest.”I don’t care about myself, I care about my country.I care about my people.”Yesterday, Nepali political parties cut across party lines to hail the contribution to their cause of Parajuli, whom they affectionately called the “mother of protests”.Nampa-ReutersSince then, she was at the forefront of almost every demonstration in the Nepali capital against the king, who took absolute power in 2005 saying he was acting to crush a Maoist insurgency.Parajuli, a short, frail woman who always sported white or yellow sandalwood paste on her forehead, was hit several times by tear gas shells and water cannon and arrested 35 times for her anti-monarch protests on the dusty streets of Kathmandu.”I am not afraid,” Parajuli told Reuters during one protest.”I don’t care about myself, I care about my country.I care about my people.”Yesterday, Nepali political parties cut across party lines to hail the contribution to their cause of Parajuli, whom they affectionately called the “mother of protests”.Nampa-Reuters