KATHMANDU: At least 51 people, including an Indian national, have died in recent ‘Gen Z’ protests across Nepal against corruption and a social media ban, police confirmed on Friday.
Senior Superintendent of Police Ramesh Thapa, co-spokesperson for Nepal police, told The Kathmandu Post that the casualties include one Indian national, three policemen, and several Nepali citizens.
Tribhuvan University Teaching Hospital in Maharajgunj is currently holding post-mortems on 36 bodies, while 17 others were recovered from different parts of the country on Thursday and Friday.
On Monday, at least 19 people—mostly students—were killed when police opened fire near the Parliament building as the Gen Z protests began. Following the unrest, Prime Minister K P Sharma Oli resigned on Tuesday after hundreds of protesters stormed his office demanding accountability. The social media ban was lifted later that night.
Despite Oli’s resignation, violence continued, with protesters setting fire to the Parliament, the President’s Office, the Prime Minister’s residence, government buildings, political party offices, and homes of senior leaders. Many of the deceased were cremated on Friday afternoon at Aryaghat, near the Bagmati River at Pashupatinath Temple.
Nearly 1,700 people were injured during the protests, of whom around 1,000 have since returned home after treatment. Nepal’s police are gradually restoring operations in the Kathmandu Valley, with previously vandalized or burned stations reopening.
