Nepal Cabinet forms probe panel after violent protests leave 19 dead

Kathmandu: After the violent afternoon that left at least 19 people dead in Nepal during the GenZ protest against corruption and a ban on social media apps, a cabinet meeting of the Nepal government held late evening decided to form a committee to investigate the incidents, a cabinet minister said.

“A decision has been taken to form the committee to investigate the incident, and representatives in the committee will be determined on Tuesday,” the minister, who didn’t want to be named, said.

“The committee will get a mandate to complete the task and submit the report within 15 days.”

According to the minister, the situation turned violent due to the infiltration of unidentified groups in the protests, and they started vandalising the government buildings.

Even though the cabinet was expected to lift the existing ban on social media apps, including Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, X, WeChat, among others, the minister said that the cabinet did not decide because of firm opposition from the Prime Minister.

However, the banned social media have started to run smoothly late at night without any notice from the government side.

Before the cabinet meeting, a meeting of ruling Nepali Congress office bearers and former office bearers had decided to urge the government to lift the ban on social media.

Amid widespread backlash over the handling of the protest, Nepal’s Minister for Home Affairs Ramesh Lekhak resigned from his post earlier in the evening, citing the loss of lives in police firings.

The government authorities said at least 19 died and over 300 were injured as police opened fire on the protestors. Of the total dead, 17 were killed in Kathmandu, according to Nepal police.

After the crowd turned violent, the local administration of Kathmandu enforced curfew in selected sensitive locations of Kathmandu, including the areas around the President’s Office, Vice-President’s Office, Prime Minister’s Office, Parliament building and the main administrative zone of the Nepalese government–Singh Durbar. Till late at night, the local administration has not decided to discontinue curfew.

A spontaneous campaign launched by GenZ-movement against the corruption and social media ban, attracted an unexpectedly large crowd that analysts say is a sign of the growing frustration with the political elites of the country.

IANS