Dalit leader Bishwakarma passes away

He died of pneumonia at the Manipal Teaching Hospital, Pokhara.Bishwakarma was actively involved in the country’s democracy movement as well as the movement for the liberation of the dalits since 1949.

Born at Lamgaon in Baglung Municipality-9, Bishwakarma had assumed the leadership of the west Bheri area during the revolution of the 2007 launched by the Nepali Congress for the overthrow of the Rana autocracy.

He is survived by a wife and a daughter.

Nepali Congress senior leader Sher Bahadur Deuba, vice-president Ram Chandra Poudel, general secretary Krishna Prasad Sitaula, central committee members Pradip Poudel and Gagan Kumar Thapa, Nepali Congress Kaski District committee president Yagya Bahadur Thapa, leader Shukra Raj Sharma, Soviet Bahadur Adhikari, Pokhara Valley Town Development Committee former president Durga Timilsina and Nepal Press Union Kaski president Shiromani Baral, among other leaders paid tributes to the late Bishwakarma.