DHAKA: Former Prime Minister of Nepal and Nepali Congress president Sushil Koirala passed away due to Pneumonia at his residence early Tuesday. He was 79.

Koirala, who was elected Prime Minister of Nepal on February 10 in 2014, died at his residence in Maharajgunj in the outskirt of capital Kathmandu at 12.50 a.m. (local time), Nepali Congress general secretary Prakash Man Singh said.

He had returned from the U.S. after undergoing a successful treatment for the lung cancer. Koirala was suffering from Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) and he succumbed to the disease.

Koirala was a key figure in adoption of Nepal’s new constitution last September with overwhelming support in the Constitution Assembly.

He spent his life in politics fighting for democracy in Nepal and was one of the leading activists in protests in 2006 that ended a centuries-old monarchy system and turned Nepal into a republic.

His body will be taken to party’s central office at sanepa, Kathmandu and kept there for last tributes from party cadres and others, Singh said.

Born in Banaras, India, unmarried Koirala entered politics in 1954 and was in political exile in India for 16 years following the royal takeover of 1960.

He also spent three years in Indian prisons for his involvement in a plane hijacking in 1973.

BDST: 0908 / 0951 HRS, FEB 09, 2016
SR