KATHMANDU: The condolence gathering planned for today to pay tributes to chopper crash victims has been postponed for tomorrow morning.

The planned condolence program has been postponed for 8 am on Friday morning after doctors said the postmortem process, which is underway at the TU Teaching Hospital (TUTH), Maharajgunj, can take hours.

Doctors involved in the postmortem say it is taking around one to two hours to carry out postmortem for a body. Meanwhile, there has been a difficulty in identifying the bodies.

Only the body of the security guard of the deceased Minister Adhikari could be identified and is already handed over to his family, doctors at the TUTH said.

There is a thick presence of Nepal Communist Party (NCP) cadres, relatives and family members of the deceased. The hospital wears a gloomy look with the wailing of the deceased family members and kin.

A total of 11 medical team led by Dr. Rijan Shrestha, the acting chief at the Forensic Medial Department of the hospital, is busy conducting the postmortem.

Seven people including Minister for Tourism, Culture and Civil Aviation Rabindra Adhikari died in a chopper crash near Pathibhara in Taplejung district when it was flying back to Kathmandu on Wednesday afternoon.