Krishna Prasad Bhattarai, a former Nepalese prime minister who played a key role in the 1990 restoration of democracy to the country, has died at the age of 87. Bhattarai, who twice served as Nepal's prime minister - once in 1990 and again in 1999 - died late Friday after suffering multiple organ failure, the hospital treating him said.
He was a founder member of Nepal's second-biggest party, the Nepali Congress, and took up arms during the 1950s to fight for the overthrow of the country's autocratic Rana rulers. He was appointed speaker of the house in 1959 after Nepal's first parliamentary elections, but was thrown into jail a year later when the then king Mahendra seized power and suspended party politics.
Mahendra's rule lasted 30 years until a popular uprising in 1990 forced him to restore parliamentary democracy. During that time Bhattarai spent more than a decade in jail because he refused to write to the king asking to be released. He was appointed prime minister in 1990 and led the interim government for two years until general elections in 1992, briefly returning to the role in 1999. Prime Minister Jhalanath Khanal said Bhattarai's death was a "huge loss for the country."