- Demonstrations led by Young held in the capital and in other cities.
- The demonstrators denounce the closure of social media, corruption.
- Police draw tear gas and rubber bullets from demonstrators.
Kathmandu: troubles killed at least 19 people in Nepal on Monday, the authorities announced, while the capital’s police dismissed tear gas and rubber bullets against demonstrators trying to storm the angry parliament during a closure and corruption of social media.
Some of the main demonstrators of young people have forced their path in the Parliament complex in Kathmandu by crossing a barricade, said a local official, setting fire to an ambulance and launching objects with anti-moving police lines keeping the legislative assembly.
“Police dismissed without discrimination,” said a demonstrator at the Anima news agency. “(They) shot balls that missed but struck a friend who stood behind me. He was touched in his hand.”
More than 100 people, including 28 police, I received medical treatment for their injuries, policeman Shekhar Khanal told Reuters. The demonstrators transported the hospital injured on a motorcycle.
Two other people were killed when demonstrations in the eastern city of Itahari have become violent, police said.
Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli called a meeting of the emergency cabinet to discuss the troubles, which broke out after thousands of young people, many of whom carrying their school or collegial uniforms, went down the streets earlier on Monday.
Many have worn flags and signs with slogans such as “close corruption and not social media”, “social media deban” and “young people against corruption”, while they were walking through Kathmandu.
The organizers of the demonstrations, which have spread to other cities of the Himalayan country, called them “demonstrations of the Z generation”. They say that the demonstrations reflect the generalized frustration of young people in the face of government action to combat corruption and stimulate economic opportunities.
“This is the demonstration of the new generation in Nepal,” said another demonstrator in Ani.
A government decision to block access to several social media platforms, of which Facebook last week fueled the anger of young people. About 90% of the 30 million people in Nepal use the Internet.
The officials said they had imposed the ban because the platforms had not succeeded in registering with the authorities in a repression against improper use, including false social media accounts used to disseminate hate and false news, and commit fraud.
Rubber bats and bullets
The police were ordered to use water cannons, batons and rubber bullets to control the crowd and the army was deployed in the parliament area to strengthen law enforcement agents, Muktiram Rijal, spokesperson for the Katmandu district office, told Reuters.
He said that the curfew, which will remain in force until 10 p.m., was extended to the Singha Durbar region of Kathmandu, which includes the Prime Minister’s office and other government buildings.
Violence decreased later in the evening, although demonstrators stayed in the region outside the Parliament.
Police said similar demonstrations had also taken place in Biratnagar and Bharatpur in the South Plains and Pokhara in western Nepal.
Many people in Nepal think that corruption is endemic, and the Oli government has been criticized by opponents for having failed to keep its promises to fight against the graft or to progress to solve long -standing economic problems.
Thousands of young Nepalese go abroad each year for work and education.
Rameshwore Khanal, a former finance secretary, said that although job creation is not up to expectations, popular anger seems to come from the misfortune of governmental appointments and its inability to eliminate corruption.
The closure of Nepal’s social media is involved while governments around the world take measures to strengthen social media surveillance and major technologies due to increasing concerns concerning issues such as disinformation, confidentiality of data, online damage and national security.
Critics say that many of these measures may suffocate freedom of expression, but regulators say that stricter controls are necessary to protect users and preserve social order.
