Nepal panel to probe violence during anti-graft protests that killed 74 | World News

Relatives of a person killed during anti-corruption protests that erupted after a social media ban, later revoked, react at the postmortem block of the Teaching Hospital in Kathmandu. (AP Photo)

Nepal’s interim government, led former Chief Justice Sushila Karki, has set up a panel to investigate the violence during anti-corruption protests this month that killed 74 people and forced Prime Miner KP Sharma Oli to quit, a miner said on Monday.

The demonstrations, which began as a Gen Z-led movement against widespread corruption and a lack of jobs, escalated into the Himalayan nation’s deadliest violence in decades.
Story continues below this ad

More than 2,100 people were injured while protesters set fire to the main office complex that houses the prime miner’s office, the Supreme Court and the parliament building as well as malls, luxury hotels and showrooms that the demonstrators said were owned people close to corrupt politicians.

Rameshwore Khanal, who Karki put in charge of the finance minry, said the three-member panel headed retired judge Gauri Bahadur Karki had been given three months to complete the probe. “It will investigate… the loss of life and property during the protests, excesses both sides and people involved in the acts of arson and vandalism during the movement,” Khanal told Reuters.

In a social media post, former Prime Miner Oli also demanded an investigation into the violence and said his government did not order police to fire at the protesters. The protests were infiltrated outsiders and police did not possess the type of weapons which were used to fire on the crowd, Oli said.

Karki is the former chairman of a special court that hears corruption cases in Nepal and has a reputation for honesty and integrity.