Former Nepal prime minister K.P. Sharma Oli has denied that his government gave orders to police to fire on protesters during the Gen Z demonstrations earlier this month, which left at least 72 people dead in the bloodiest unrest Nepal has seen in years.
In a message issued on Constitution Day, Oli rejected accusations that his administration had directed the security forces to open fire on crowds of young demonstrators. “The government didn’t order to shoot at the demonstrators,” he said, adding that the bullets which killed the protesters on 8 September came from automatic weapons “not possessed by the police personnel”.
The post, however, appeared to have been later removed as it could no longer be accessed.
A screenshot of KP Sharma Oli's post(Screengrab)
In that post, chairman of the Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist–Leninist) instead pointed to “infiltrators” who, he claimed, had hijacked peaceful marches and deliberately provoked violence.
“The infiltrating conspirators turned the agitation violent, and this way our youths were killed,” Oli said.
He expressed grief over the deaths and demanded an independent investigation into the shootings.
Oli also referred to the arson that swept the capital Kathmandu after his resignation on 9 September.
“The Singhdurbar Secretariat and Supreme Court were set on fire, Nepal’s map was burnt and many important government buildings were set on fire after I resigned from the post,” he wrote on Facebook. Without naming names, he added: “I don’t want to elaborate on the conspiracies behind these incidents, time will speak for itself.”
The former prime minister said the turbulence reminded him of the fraught circumstances in which Nepal’s constitution was promulgated in 2015, during a border blockade and challenges to national sovereignty. He urged “all generations of Nepalis” to unite in defence of the charter.
After resigning, Oli flew to an army barracks believed to be in the Shivapuri forest area north of the capital, before later moving to a private residence in Bhaktapur district, east of Kathmandu, according to army sources and media reports.
Three new ministers, named to the interim cabinet of Nepal, take oath of office at the presidential palace in Kathmandu(Reuters)
The Gen Z protests, driven by widespread anger over corruption and joblessness, have unsettled Nepal’s political class.
On Friday, interim PM Sushila Karki, said the unrest laid bare “the aspirations of the young generation, a growing level of popular awareness and dissatisfaction over the rising corruption”.
Nepal's interim Prime Minister Sushila Karki speaks with Chairperson of National Assembly Narayan Prasad Dahal(Reuters)
Karki, a former chief justice and the first woman to lead Nepal, marked National Day by pledging reform. “We must accept the fact that the protests took place because of the failure to fulfil the spirit and objectives of providing good governance and prosperity enshrined in the constitution,” she said. She promised employment creation, greater transparency and a crackdown on corruption, adding: “Democracy is a system of dialogue and finding solutions.”