Nineteen killed in Nepal in 'Gen Z' protest over social media ban, corruption

By Gopal Sharma

KATHMANDU (Reuters) - At least 19 people in two cities died on Monday in Nepal's worst unrest in decades, authorities said, as police in the capital fired tear gas and rubber bullets at protesters trying to storm parliament in anger at a social media shutdown and corruption.

Some of the protesters, most of them young, forced their way into the parliament complex in Kathmandu by breaking through a barricade, a local official said, setting fire to an ambulance and hurling objects at lines of riot police guarding the legislature. 

"The police have been firing indiscriminately," one protester told the ANI news agency. "(They) fired bullets which missed me but hit a friend who was standing behind me. He was hit in the hand."

More than 100 people including 28 police personnel were receiving medical treatment for their injuries, police officer Shekhar Khanal told Reuters. Protesters were ferrying the injured to hospital on motorcycles.

A government decision last week to block access to several social media platforms, including Meta Platforms'  Facebook, has fuelled anger among the young. About 90% of Nepal's 30 million people use the internet.

Officials said they imposed the ban because platforms had failed to register with authorities in a crackdown on misuse, including false social media accounts used to spread hate speech and fake news, and commit fraud.

Two of the 19 people were killed when protests in the eastern city of Itahari turned violent, police said.

Home (interior) Minister Ramesh Lekhak resigned from the government after taking "moral responsibility" for the violence, another government minister, who requested anonymity because he was not authorised to speak with the media, told Reuters. 

Prime Minister K.P. Sharma Oli called an emergency cabinet meeting to discuss the unrest, which erupted after thousands of young people, including many wearing their school or college uniforms, took to the streets earlier on Monday.

Many carried flags and placards with slogans such as "Shut down corruption and not social media,"  "Unban social media," and "Youths against corruption" as they marched through Kathmandu.

Organisers of the protests, which spread to other cities in the Himalayan country, have called them "demonstrations by Gen Z." They say the protests reflect young people's widespread frustration with the government's perceived lack of action to tackle corruption and boost economic opportunities. 

"This is the protest by the new generation in Nepal," another protester told ANI.

International nonprofit organization Human Rights Watch said the government of Nepal should avoid perceiving these protests primarily through a law enforcement perspective and recognize that demonstrators’ mass outpourings of criticism reflect deep frustrations throughout Nepal with entrenched corruption, nepotism, and poor governance.

“Nonviolent means should be utilized before resorting to force," it said in a statement. "The use of force is only appropriate if other measures to address a genuine threat have proved ineffective.” 

BATONS AND RUBBER BULLETS

Police had orders to use water cannons, batons and rubber bullets to control the crowd and the army was deployed in the parliament area to bolster law enforcement officers, Muktiram Rijal, a spokesperson for the Kathmandu district office, told Reuters. 

Violence abated later in the evening although protesters remained in the area outside parliament.

Police said similar protests were also held in Biratnagar and Bharatpur in the southern plains and in Pokhara in western Nepal.

Many people in Nepal think corruption is rampant, and the Oli government has been criticised by opponents for failing to deliver on its promises to tackle graft or make progress to address longstanding economic issues.

The Oli government has said the economy was recovering because of corrective measures it had taken.

Thousands of young Nepalis go abroad every year for work and education.

Nepal has been politically unstable since it abolished a 239-year-old monarchy in 2008. There have been 14 governments since 2008, not one of which has completed a full five-year term. Oli, 73, was sworn in to his fourth term last year. 

Rameshwore Khanal, a former finance secretary, said although job creation is not up to expectations, popular anger appears to stem more from unhappiness with government appointments and its inability to stamp out corruption.

Nepal's social media shutdown comes as governments worldwide take steps to tighten oversight of social media and Big Tech due to growing concern about issues such as misinformation, data privacy, online harm and national security.

Critics say many of these measures risk stifling free expression, but regulators say stricter controls are needed to protect users and preserve social order.

(Reporting by Gopal Sharma in Kathmandu, Writing by YP Rajesh; Editing by Helen Popper, Saad Sayeed and Matthew Lewis)