Kathmandu, May 31 -- Twenty years ago on 1 June, 2001, Nepal witnessed an unimaginably shocking tragedy. King Birendra, Queen Aishwarya and eight other members of the royal family were killed during regular monthly family dinner at the Naryanhiti Palace.

People at the centre of Kathmandu all heard the sound of automatic gunfire at 8:45pm, and feared that the Maoists were attacking the palace. It turned out that Prince Dipendra had killed his father, mother, brother, sister, an uncle, aunts, and other relatives before killing himself.

The massacre shocked not just Nepal, but the world - a regicide, patricide, matricide, fratricide, sororicide, multiple homicides and a suicide-all in one.

Nepal was in the midst of the Maoist insurrection...