When son comes home in coffin amidst Dashain festivities

Kailali: While the Dashain festival is being celebrated with great enthusiasm throughout the nation, this morning in Nimbukheda, Bhimdutta Municipality-15 of Kanchanpur district, a scene of sorrow unfolded. Nimbukheda was overwhelmed with grief as the lifeless body of Deepesh Bista, one of the 10 victims of the Hamas militant group’s attack in Israel on Oct 7, arrived at his family’s doorstep in a coffin. Bista had been in Israel as part of the 11-month ‘Learn and Earn’ training program, representing the Agriculture Campus under Sudurpaschim University in Tikapur, Kailali.

Deepesh’s mother, Parbati, lost consciousness upon hearing the devastating news of her son’s passing. She had come from her ancestral home in Lekam rural municipality-5 in Darchaula district to receive her son’s body. A grieving neighbor, Suresh Pal, reminisced, “Deepesh excelled academically from a young age. When he lost his father at a tender age, he displayed great determination to become the sole provider for the family. He was the unwavering support for his widowed mother.”

“He maintained a fearless attitude and was determined to improve the family’s living conditions. It’s heartbreaking that he returned home in a coffin,” he lamented. Deepesh’s mortal remains, which had been kept at Seti Provincial Hospital in Dhangadhi, were brought home this morning. He received a scholarship for his outstanding academic performance and attended the Global Academy in Mahendranagar from grade one to grade 10, according to Surendra Raj Ojha, the school’s principal.

Ojha, who attended Deepesh’s final rites on the banks of the Mahakali River, expressed, “This unimaginable incident has plunged all of us into a sea of sorrow.” Deepesh, who pursued a science education in his higher secondary school, had a dream of seeing his younger brother become a doctor. Since losing his father to cancer at the age of four, he had shouldered the responsibilities of the household.

His mother is a teacher at the Latinath Secondary School in Darchula, while his younger brother, Basanta Raj Bista, is pursuing an MBBS degree at the BP Koirala Institute of Health Sciences in Dharan, Sunsari district. The bodies of four out of the ten Nepali students killed in Israel were repatriated to Nepal on the previous Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. All the deceased were returned to their respective families in Sudurpaschim Province at Dhangadhi Airport on Sunday evening.