MAKWANPUR: Six teenage footballers from the ANFA Academy, who tragically lost their lives in a landslide last Saturday, were cremated together at Pashupati Aryaghat on Monday.
The teenagers, who has been undergoing closed training at the academy’s facility located at Valsla Devi Secondary School in Indrasarovar Rural Municipality-3, Makwanpur, were caught in a landslide after the gates of the Kulekhani hydropower reservoir were opened early Saturday morning. They were attempting to move from their school hostel to a safer location when the landslide struck, burying them.
Search efforts recovered the bodies of all six players, identified as Anup Ghalan from Makwanpur, Biwash Baniyaa, Aditya Balampaki, Priyank Acharya from Sarlahi, Bikal Regmi from Bara, and Simon Yonjan from Kathmandu.
The boys, part of a group of 40 trainees at the ANFA Academy, had been undergoing closed training at the academy’s facility located at the school in Sisneri, Makwanpur, since May. All were members of the Under-13 age group.
In a solemn ceremony at Pashupati Aryaghat, Nepal’s Sports Minister Teju Lal Choudhary and ANFA President draped the bodies with the national flag and ANFA’s organizational flag, respectively, paying their final respects to the young athletes.
Comment