Nepal Ex-PM Oli Apprehended Over Death of Gen Z Protesters

(MENAFN) Nepal’s former Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli and former Home Minister Ramesh Lekhak were taken into custody Saturday, facing charges of criminal negligence linked to the deaths of young demonstrators during mass protests last September.

Current Home Minister Sudan Gurung confirmed the detentions in a post on Facebook, stating: “Promise is promise. No one is above law. Former prime minister KP Sharma Oli and former home minister Ramesh Lekhak are taken under control.”

Gurung, who himself participated in the demonstrations, was quick to dismiss any notion of political retribution. “It’s just the beginning of justice. I hope the country will take a new direction,” he said.

Oli leads the communist Unified Marxist Leninist (UML) party, while Lekhak holds senior standing within the Nepali Congress (NC).

The arrests followed directly from the first Cabinet session held Friday under newly appointed Prime Minister Balendra Shah, during which authorities resolved to act on the findings of a judicial commission tasked with probing last year’s unrest. That panel — headed by retired special court chairman Gauri Bahadur Karki — called for criminal negligence investigations into Oli, Lekhak, and Police Chief Chandra Kuber Khapung.

Ahead of the arrest, scores of officers were deployed around Oli’s Bhaktapur residence. UML loyalists clashed with security forces outside the gates, though police ultimately cleared the crowd and detained the former premier.

The Cabinet also resolved to establish a separate review committee to examine the conduct of security personnel implicated in the shootings.

Both the UML and NC have rejected the commission’s findings, labeling the report partial and flawed. The UML convened an emergency session to chart its response, with expectations that it would formally announce street demonstrations.

Mahesh Basnet, secretary of the UML, condemned the detentions and called on party members to take to the streets. “It’s prejudice and revenge against us,” he said. “The emergency meeting will decide our future course,” said Basnet.

The protests that triggered this political crisis erupted in September of last year following a government-imposed ban on social media platforms. The resulting unrest — driven largely by young Nepalis — left at least 77 people dead, the majority of them youth, and wounded more than 700 others, ultimately forcing Oli’s government from power.

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