Bhaktapur: Senior journalist and Nepali Congress leader Mathawar Singh Basnet has passed away. The 79-year-old died of heart attack this morning.

A resident of Suryabinayak Municipality-8 in Bhaktapur, he was on a ventilator support at Annapurna Neuro Hospital in Kathmandu after suffering a heart attack on Thursday night.

The publisher and editor of Punarjagaran Weekly, late Basnet had also served as chair of Gorkhapatra Sansthan and led the Press Council Nepal. Also a leader of the Nepali Congress Bhaktapur, Basnet was imprisoned several times for his fight for democracy since he joined politics in 2017 BS.

He was released from prison after democracy was established in the country in 1990. Basnet is survived by his wife, a son, and a daughter. He will be cremated later today at Pashupati Aryaghat in Kathmandu, according to Sushil Basnet, Secretary of the Nepali Congress Bhaktapur District Committee.