At least 14 people have been killed and dozens injured during violent protests against the government’s social media ban and alleged corruption in Nepal, according to state-run TV, as police fired live rounds at young protesters and used tear gas and rubber bullets on them.
On Monday, some protesters forced their way into the parliament complex in the capital, Kathmandu, by breaking through a barricade, a local official said.
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One protester told the ANI news agency that the police had been firing “indiscriminately”.
“[They] fired bullets which missed me but hit a friend who was standing behind me. He was hit in the hand,” the protester said.
Seven people died at the National Trauma Centre, chief medical superintendent Dr Badri Risal told The Associated Press news agency, adding there were 58 wounded in the country’s main hospital, located in the heart of Kathmandu.
“Many of them are in serious condition and appear to have been shot in the head and chest,” Risal said.
Families waited anxiously outside for news of their relatives while people gathered to donate blood.
According to Nepal Television, more than 50 people were injured.
Demonstrators help a man injured during a protest outside Parliament, in Kathmandu on September 8, 2025 [AFP]
‘Youths against corruption’
Thousands of young people, including students in their school and college uniforms, joined the protest, holding signs that read “Shut down corruption and not social media”, “Unban social media”, and “Youths against corruption”, as they marched through Kathmandu.
Ikshama Tumrok, a 20-year-old student, told the AFP news agency that she was protesting against the “authoritarian attitude” of the government.
“We want to see change. Others have endured this, but it has to end with our generation,” she said.
Last week, the government decided to block access to several social media platforms, including Facebook, YouTube and X, fuelling anger among young Nepalis.
According to officials, the decision was taken because platforms had failed to register with authorities in a crackdown on misuse, including fake social media accounts used to spread hate speech and fake news and commit fraud.
Organisers of the protests, which have been dubbed “demonstrations by Gen Z”, have said their civil disobedience reflects how the youth feel about the government decision.
One protester told ANI that this was “the protest by the new generation in Nepal”.
Muktiram Rijal, a spokesperson for the Kathmandu District Administration Office, told the Reuters news agency that the police had orders to use water cannon, batons and rubber bullets to control the crowd and that the army had been deployed.
According to Rijal, the curfew, which will remain in place until 10pm (16:15 GMT), has been extended to Kathmandu’s Singha Durbar area, which includes the prime minister’s office and other government buildings.
As Chinese leader Xi Jinping stood beside Russian President Vladimir Putin in Beijing last week, he claimed to be working towards a “true multilateralism” in which nations treat each other as equals and avoid “hegemonism and power politics” – a vocabulary the Chinese president returns to with regularity.
China is officially neutral in Russia’s war in Ukraine, and Xi has presented himself as a mediator, inviting Putin, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and United States President Donald Trump to Beijing in December for talks.
But China is not equidistant from the neighbours at war.
Xi’s “no limits” alliance with Putin, pronounced just before the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine, puts him in the camp of an aggressor bent on “hegemonism”, experts tell Al Jazeera.
Three decades ago, however, China was Ukraine’s ally, not Russia’s.
When Ukraine agreed to give up its nuclear weapons in return for security guarantees from Russia in 1994, China lauded the move and, in December of that year, offered Kyiv nuclear security guarantees should it ever be attacked by a nuclear power.
In 2013, Ukraine and China signed a Treaty of Friendship undertaking that “none of the sides shall take any action that harms the sovereignty, security, or territorial integrity of the other side”.
Vita Golod, an expert on Chinese-Ukrainian relations at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill, said Beijing has betrayed both undertakings.
“These commitments have so far remained largely rhetorical and have not translated into concrete security guarantees for Ukraine,” she told Al Jazeera. “In 2024, Ukraine attempted to remind China of these assurances during its appeal at the United Nations, calling for special security guarantees from nuclear states.”
Instead, China helped Russia scupper condemnations of its invasion of Ukraine in the UN Security Council.
A 12-point position paper China published in February 2023 refused to condemn Russia’s war and echoed the Kremlin’s talking points, such as initiating peace talks without the precondition of a Russian withdrawal from Ukraine.
“Beijing lacks the credibility to act as an honest broker between Ukraine and Russia,” said Plamen Tonchev, a China expert at the Institute of International Economic Relations (IIER), an Athens-based think tank. “I don’t think that it acted as a guarantor. On the contrary, it ditched Ukraine.”
Ukraine’s ‘strategic scepticism’ on China
In June 2024, Ukraine attempted to bring countries to a peace conference hosted by Switzerland. China did not attend, and Ukraine accused it of pressing other Asian nations to abstain.
At a speech in Singapore, Zelenskyy lashed out at Russia for “using Chinese influence in the region, using Chinese diplomats also”, and doing “everything to disrupt the peace summit”.
Xi has met Putin, whom European leaders openly refer to as a war criminal, five times since the full-scale invasion began.
“Ukraine has moved from caution to open strategic scepticism,” said Velina Tchakarova, founder of Vienna-based forecaster For a Conscious Experience (FACE). “China is no longer seen as a potential mediator but as a strategic adversary masked in neutral rhetoric.
“Ukraine is therefore deepening its integration with NATO, aligning with the G7 reconstruction framework, and engaging in tech and defence cooperation with Indo-Pacific democracies as part of a broader anti-revisionist coalition.”
Material interests
China moved quickly from diplomatic support and political rehabilitation to material assistance.
As early as February 2023, then-US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Washington had “information that they’re considering providing lethal support”, in a reference to China.
“The US is in no position to tell China what to do,” responded Wang Wenbin, Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman.
Last April, Ukraine accused China of sending artillery shells and gunpowder to Russia and sanctioned three Chinese companies – an aeronautics firm and two industrial components companies.
The European Union followed. In May, it included Chinese firms in a 17th package of sanctions for supplying dual-use goods to Russia’s war machine.
China denied supplying deadly arms and said it strictly controlled the export of dual-use goods.
But a July investigative report by the Reuters news agency said Chinese firms were single-handedly sustaining Russian drone production by shipping engines mislabelled as “industrial refrigeration units” to Russia’s drone assembly plants.
Last month alone, Ukraine said it downed 6,173 drones launched by Russia.
Residents stand outside their damaged apartment building hit during a Russian missile and drone attack in Kyiv, Ukraine, on July 31, 2025 [Thomas Peter/Reuters]
China has also helped Russia financially by refusing to join the EU and the US in banning imports of Russian energy.
On the contrary, Putin and Xi signed an agreement last week to construct a new gas pipeline supplying China with as much as 50 billion cubic metres (bcm) of gas a year, in addition to the 38bcm China receives from an existing pipeline. On August 29, China received its first shipment of liquefied natural gas from Russia’s Arctic LNG 2 project, a sanctioned liquefaction plant.
“Russia is cementing its political and economic dependence on China,” said Andriy Kovalenko, head of Ukraine’s Center for Countering Disinformation. “China is … dictating cheap prices, terms, and deadlines, forcing Moscow to sign agreements that turn it into an appendage.”
That dependence may go beyond energy revenues and industrial production. Ukraine suspects China is spying on Russia’s behalf. Last September, Zelenskyy said Chinese satellites were photographing Ukrainian nuclear power plants, possibly in preparation for a Russian strike.
In July, the Security Service of Ukraine (SSU) arrested Chinese citizens after it allegedly found classified documents on their mobile phones with the specifications of Ukraine’s Neptune missile system. Ukraine used the Neptune to sink Russia’s Black Sea Fleet flagship, the Moskva, in 2022.
China’s debt to Ukraine
In addition to “Beijing’s pro-Russia neutrality”, as IIER’s Tonchev put it, China has overlooked a historic debt to Ukraine, said analysts.
“China owes Ukraine a lot. It would not now be a peer competitor to the US without significant transfers of technology from Ukraine,” said a European China expert on condition of anonymity.
In 1998, a Chinese national bought the hull of an unfinished Soviet aircraft carrier, the Varyag, from Ukraine and towed it to China, allegedly to convert it into a casino.
“The vessel was later refurbished, militarised, and launched as the Liaoning, laying the foundation for China’s modern aircraft carrier programme and broader naval modernisation,” said North Carolina University’s Golod.
“This early episode exemplified China’s exploitation of post-Soviet weakness to build its own military capabilities using Ukrainian technology,” said Tchakarova of FACE.
“It was the starting point in China’s strategy to build carrier battle groups and enhance the interoperability of its navy and air forces,” said Tonchev.
But another military technology target was of far greater interest.
In 2016, Beijing Skyrizon Aviation sought to acquire a controlling stake in Ukraine’s Motor Sich, one of the world’s top makers of engines for cargo aircraft and helicopters. Rich with Soviet aeronautics technology, the company was impoverished by the loss of its main client, Russia, which had waged war in Ukraine’s Donbas region. China saw Motor Sich as key to its rearmament.
But 2016 was a wake-up call for Europe, as Chinese appliance maker Midea acquired Kuka, Germany’s leading robotics company, and the China Ocean Shipping Company, a state-owned enterprise, bought the Piraeus Port Authority in Greece to facilitate Chinese exports to Europe.
China’s State Grid, another state behemoth, was found to have bought up a string of European electricity networks as the EU thought it was privatising them.
The capital spending had political implications. Eastern European countries like Hungary and Greece were breaking ranks with Europe on policy positions towards China.
“If we do not succeed … in developing a single strategy towards China, then China will succeed in dividing Europe,” German Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel said in September.
France, Germany and Italy requested a Europe-wide screening mechanism for foreign mergers and acquisitions, and the EU declared China a non-market economy.
In this political climate, and under US pressure, Ukraine stopped the sale of Motor Sich and nationalised the company. Beijing Skyrizon Aviation sued Ukraine for $4.5bn.
“Today … there is no active military or sensitive technological cooperation between Ukraine and China. The relationship has cooled significantly,” said Golod.
Front, from left, Russian President Vladimir Putin, Chinese President Xi Jinping and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un arrive at a military parade to commemorate the 80th anniversary of Japan’s World War II surrender in Beijing, China, September 3, 2025 [Sergei Bobylev/Sputnik/Kremlin via AP]
There were other interests.
“By 2021, China was the largest importer of Ukrainian barley and corn, accounting for over 30 percent of its corn imports. Ukrainian sunflower oil, iron ore, and titanium were crucial to China’s food security and industrial base,” said Tchakarova. All those goods now come from Russia.
China’s imports from Ukraine now amount to $4bn – a fraction of the $130bn it spends on Russian imports, according to the UN’s Comtrade database.
What, then, is China’s game in Ukraine? It appears to hold a balanced position. China helped discourage Putin from any use of nuclear weapons. It has not recognised the annexation of the four provinces Russia claims – Luhansk, Donetsk, Zaporizhia and Kherson. It is interested in reconstruction. It is willing to host talks and possibly contribute troops to a peacekeeping force.
But, Tonchev said, self-interest drives some of these positions. China’s support of “territorial integrity” and the renunciation of separatism “suited both sides, with a view to Taiwan”, he said. And in discussions he has had with Chinese analysts, “China is unlikely to act as a donor … In fact, when I raise this question, there’s deafening silence.”
Ultimately, believed Tchakarova, China is strategically supporting Russia to drain Western power.
In Beijing, Putin and Xi openly supported a new world order. That, said Tchakarova, meant “replacing the Western-led, rules-based order with a multipolar system that tolerates spheres of influence and territorial revisionism”.
Who: South Africa vs Nigeria What: CAF qualifiers for FIFA 2026 World Cup Where: Free State Stadium in Bloemfontein, Free State province, South Africa When: Tuesday at 6pm (16:00 GMT)
How to follow: We’ll have all the build-up on Al Jazeera Sport from 13:30 GMT in advance of our live text commentary stream.
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Nigeria travel to South Africa looking to get their FIFA World Cup 2026 Confederation of African Football (CAF) qualifying chances back on track against the Group C leaders.
Nigeria, the three-time African champions, are currently third in the group, but they could move as high as second with a victory on Tuesday in Bloemfontein and keep alive their country’s qualifying hopes.
Making the Super Eagles’ task all the harder is that South Africa are unbeaten at home during the group phase with victories against Benin (2-1), Zimbabwe (3-1) and Lesotho (3-0).
Here is all to know about the high-stakes matchup between two of Africa’s most high-profile footballing nations:
Where do South Africa and Nigeria currently stand in Group C?
After seven matches, South Africa have opened up a wide points gap between themselves and the five other teams in the group:
South Africa: 16 points (+8 GD)
Benin: 11 points (0 GD)
Nigeria: 10 points (+2 GD)
Rwanda: 8 points (-1 GD)
Lesotho: 6 points (-4 GD)
Zimbabwe: 4 points (-5 GD)
How many African teams will qualify for the FIFA World Cup 2026?
African World Cup qualifying is arranged into nine groups of six nations.
The nine CAF group winners secure direct entry to the World Cup 2026 while the four best runners-up will participate in an intercontinental playoff for the possibility of securing a 10th spot at the tournament.
Of the nine African groups, only Morocco have already qualified for next year’s World Cup finals in North America.
CAF World Cup 2026 qualification dates:
First round (November 15, 2023, to October 14): Group stage features 54 teams.
Second round (November 10-18): Four best group runners-up play in semifinal-final format. Winners compete in interconfederation playoff for potential 10th African World Cup spot.
South Africa’s Aubrey Modiba, left, and his teammates are coming off an impressive 3-0 win against Lesotho on September 5, 2025, in Bloemfontein and lead Group C by five points with two matches remaining [Siphiwe Sibeko/Reuters]
Could Nigeria still qualify for the FIFA World Cup 2026?
Nigeria could still reach the World Cup finals, but they will be dependent on other teams to finish top of their group.
They need to win against leaders South Africa (Matchday 8), then secure victories in their final two matches (Matchday 9 and 10) against Lesotho and Benin and hope South Africa lose one of their final two games to even have a mathematical chance of directly qualifying as the Group C winners.
If South Africa was to lose one of their final two matches and Nigeria wins both, the teams would be tied on 19 points at the end of the first round with the group winner being decided on goal difference. If they are tied on goal difference, then the two teams’ head-to-head record would be a factor in deciding the group winner.
If Nigeria finished second in Group C, they could potentially qualify as one of the four best runners-up for the intercontinental playoff. If they won the playoff, they would be admitted to the World Cup finals as the 10th African team.
Team news: South Africa
Head coach Hugo Broos will be without his first team defenders Nyiko Mobbie and Thabo Brendon Moloisane after both were injured against Lesotho on Friday. Kaizer Chiefs’ Thabiso Monyane has been called up as a possible replacement for Mobbie against Nigeria.
Burnley forward Lyle Foster, who scored and assisted in the 3-0 home win over Lesotho, is again expected to lead the line against Nigeria.
Team news: Nigeria
Head coach Eric Chelle will be without his talismanic striker Victor Osimhen, who was ruled out of the South Africa fixture after suffering a chin bruise during a 1-0 win over Rwanda on Friday.
Osimhen, who plays for the Turkish side Galatasaray, was considered the biggest goal threat for the Super Eagles, and his absence creates a selection dilemma for Chelle, who is tipped to go with Tolu Arokodare to lead the line, although Cyriel Dessers and Samuel Chukwueze would also be in contention.
In Osimhen’s absence, Moses Simon, Ademola Lookman and Alex Iwobi could all be deployed further forward to add attacking punch to the lineup.
Nigeria’s star forward Victor Osimhen did not make the trip to South Africa due to injury [File: Siphiwe Sibeko/Reuters]
When did South Africa last qualify for the FIFA World Cup finals?
South Africa have appeared in the FIFA World Cup finals on three occasions: 1998, 2002 and 2010.
The last time the Bafana Bafana successfully qualified for the World Cup through the CAF qualifiers was in 2002. In 2010, they were awarded automatic entry as the tournament hosts.
How many FIFA World Cup finals have Nigeria reached?
Nigeria have been to six FIFA World Cup finals but missed out on the most recent tournament in Qatar in 2022.
When was the last time the two sides met in South Africa?
The last time South Africa and Nigeria met in Bloemfontein was during a competitive fixture at the 2019 AFCON qualifiers with the Super Eagles winning the away fixture 2-1.
Lyle Foster scores South Africa’s second goal against Lesotho in their World Cup CAF qualifiers Group C match on September 5, 2025, in Bloemfontein [Siphiwe Sibeko/Reuters]
Possible starting lineups:
South Africa: Williams (goalkeeper); Mdunyelwa, Ndamane, Monyane, Modiba; Mokoena, Mbatha; Nkota, Mbule, Appollis; Foster
Talks on resuming International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) inspections of Iran’s nuclear sites have made progress, but its chief warned that there was “not much” time remaining.
On Monday, the director general of the United Nations nuclear watchdog, Rafael Grossi, told the 35-nation IAEA Board of Governors in Vienna, Austria, that “Progress has been made”.
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“It is my sincere hope that within the next few days it will be possible to come to a successful conclusion of these discussions,” Grossi said, adding: “There is still time, but not much.”
He did not elaborate on what the timeframe meant exactly.
While Tehran allowed inspectors from the IAEA into Iran at the end of August, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said no agreement had been reached on the resumption of full cooperation with the watchdog.
Following a 12-day war, which saw Israel and the United States bomb cities across Iran, as well as Fordo, Natanz and Isfahan nuclear facilities, in June, Tehran decided to change its cooperation with the IAEA.
Iran expressed anger at the IAEA for paving the way for Israel’s attack by censuring the country the day before Israel struck with a damning report in May that declared that Tehran was in breach of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT).
Fury then followed when the watchdog did not condemn Israeli or US attacks. In July, Iran passed a law suspending cooperation with the agency.
Within the law, any future inspection of its nuclear sites needs approval by Iran’s Supreme National Security Council.
However, last week, Grossi told the Reuters news agency in an interview that the board was pushing for a deal to inspect Iranian sites, including those targeted by Israel and the US.
Grossi confirmed that the IAEA had no information from Iran on the status or whereabouts of its stock of highly enriched uranium since Israel’s attacks on June 13.
“I believe there is a general understanding that by and large, the material is still there. But, of course, it needs to be verified. Some could have been lost,” he said.
“We don’t have indications that would lead us to believe that there has been major movement of material,” Grossi added.
Late last month, France, Germany and the United Kingdom triggered a mechanism to reimpose sanctions on Iran after a series of meetings failed to reach an agreement on the Iranian nuclear programme.
Members of the United Kingdom’s largest transport union have gone on strike in London, bringing the city’s underground train system to a halt as tube services are suspended.
The National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers (RMT) said about 10,000 members walked off their jobs on Sunday night for the first of five days of strikes over working hours and pay.
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The London Underground, which carries an estimated 5 million people daily, showed on its website that all of the capital city’s underground tube lines were either suspended or partially suspended with the exception of the newly built Elizabeth Line, which took the strain of commuters seeking alternative paths into the city. The Transport for London (TfL) website crashed due to increased web traffic.
Queues formed outside Elizabeth Line stations, and platforms in the city were crowded. The rest of London’s transport system and national rail services were unaffected by the strike.
The BBC showed an image from the Neasden train depot in northwest London showing dozens of stationary tube carriages.
RMT members took positions on picket lines across tube stations in London as part of the industrial action, which began on Sunday at 6pm (17:00 GMT) and will continue until Thursday.
The transport union decided to take strike action after it rejected an annual pay increase of 3.4 percent from TfL, which is the public body responsible for operating London’s buses, underground and other transport services. RMT is also pushing for reduced working hours from 35 to 32 hours a week.
An RMT spokesperson said: “We are not going on strike to disrupt small businesses or the public. This strike is going ahead because of the intransigent approach of TfL management and their refusal to even consider a small reduction in the working week in order to help reduce fatigue and the ill-health effects of long-term shift work on our members.”
In a post on X, RMT said the tube was operating with 2,000 fewer staff than before the pandemic, which was resulting in “extreme shifts (4 am starts, 1 am finishes) to keep London moving.” The post added: “Fatigue and understaffing are a dangerous mix.”
Kim Johnson, a left-wing MP for Liverpool, showed support for the RMT members and said on social media: “No worker should be put at risk by fatigue & extreme shift rotations”.
TfL says any reduction in hours is “unaffordable and impractical”.
In a post on X, London Mayor Sadiq Khan called on TfL and RMT “to get around the table and resolve their dispute”. He added: “Nobody wants to see strike action – it causes serious disruption for Londoners, businesses and visitors alike.”
At least 14 people were killed in clashes with security forces after thousands of young people in Nepal took to the streets on Monday to protest against corruption and a government ban on social media websites.
A curfew was imposed in parts of Kathmandu after protesters entered the Parliament building in the capital and faced off against the police.
Here is what prompted the demonstration, dubbed the Gen Z protest, and what is the latest on the ground.
When did the protest begin in Nepal?
The protest began at 9am (03:15 GMT) on Monday.
Where are the protesters marching?
The protesters gathered in Maitighar, a neighbourhood in Kathmandu. It includes a busy road intersection, featuring the Maitighar Mandala monument — one of the city’s most iconic landmarks.
What’s happening in the Gen Z protest?
Aayush Basyal, a 27-year-old master’s student in Kathmandu who was present at the protest site, said the demonstration was “unprecedented with the number of attendees”.
However, Basyal added that as the protest progressed, “mobs of physically well-built guys came on their loud motorcycles through the crowd to create a sense of chaos”. It is this set of people, he said, that broke through the barricades to enter Parliament. Al Jazeera could not independently verify this claim.
Basyal said there was extensive participation from school and college students, some in their uniforms. “Surprisingly, I did not see any affiliation related to any political parties,” he said.
What is behind Nepal’s Gen Z protest?
Growing dissatisfaction among the youth with corruption in the country materialised into the demonstration on Monday.
Basyal said the protests were fuelled by incidents of corruption in recent years “that get regularly talked about in public, in Parliament, but never seem to reach a fair conclusion”.
These include a 2017 Airbus deal, in which Nepal Airlines bought two A330 wide-body jets. A five-year-long inquiry, conducted by the Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA), a watchdog appointed under the country’s constitution, revealed last year that the deal led to a loss of 1.47 billion rupees ($10.4m) to the exchequer. Several top officials were convicted of corruption following the inquiry.
Protests in Sri Lanka and Bangladesh — which led to the removal of governments in the South Asian countries in 2022 and 2024, respectively — served as inspirations, Basyal said. In the Philippines, images of children of public figures enjoying lavish lifestyles have also drawn social media criticism recently. That also motivated protests in the Himalayan nation, Basyal added, as videos emerged on TikTok showing children of Nepalese politicians living lives of luxury in a country where the per capita income is $1,300 a year.
Ankit Bhandari, a 23-year-old student in Kathmandu who was present at the protest site, told Al Jazeera that the protest seemed to stem from the “frustration of having to pay tax” with no “proper documentation” of how it was being utilised.
The government’s September 4 announcement that it was blocking several social media platforms, including Facebook, added to the anger.
“The protests are fuelled by the frustration of youth and their disbelief in authority, as they feel sidelined from decision-making,” Yog Raj Lamichhane, an assistant professor at the School of Business in Nepal’s Pokhara University, told Al Jazeera.
“While the recent ban on social media platforms has added fuel to the unrest, the grievances extend far deeper, rooted in longstanding neglect and the silencing of youth voices.”
Hami Nepal, a nonprofit organisation that began as a youth movement in 2015, organised Monday’s protest. According to the Kathmandu District Administration Office, the organisation had secured approval for it.
“At the core of their demands lies a call for the rule of law, where fairness, accountability, and justice prevail over favouritism and corruption,” Lamichhane said.
The government blocked 26 social media platforms, including WhatsApp, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and YouTube.
The ban came into effect after one week was given to these social media websites to register with the Nepali government. The websites had until September 3 to register with the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology.
To avoid being shut down in the country, the websites had to name a local contact, a grievance handler and a person responsible for self-regulation.
A day after the deadline, the government issued a directive to the regulator, Nepal Telecommunications Authority (NTA), to shut down the websites that did not comply. An unnamed ministry official told the Reuters news agency that some platforms, including TikTok, Viber, and WeTalk, had registered with the government.
According to the government, users with fake IDs on these platforms are committing malicious acts and cybercrime, disrupting social harmony. About 90 percent of Nepal’s 30 million people use the internet, according to a 2021 NTA report.
As of 2021, about 7.5 percent of Nepal’s population was living abroad, reliant on platforms such as Meta’s Messenger to communicate with families back home. Many Nepalis have switched to Viber to communicate with their families and friends who are working abroad as migrant workers.
“It was abrupt,” and in a country with a large population overseas, was “frustrating,” Basyal said.
What is the latest on the ground?
The Kathmandu District Administration Office imposed a curfew in and around the New Baneshwor area, some 3km (about 2 miles) from Maitighar.
This happened after some protesters broke barricades set up by the police and entered the Parliament premises in New Baneshwor.
The curfew order, signed by Chief District Officer Chhabilal Rijal, bars gatherings in and around the area effective 12:30pm (06:45 GMT) to 10pm (16:15 GMT) on Monday.
The curfew was extended to other areas of Kathmandu, including the presidential residence — known as Rastrapati Bhawan or Shital Niwas — and the vice president’s residence in Lainchaur. The president’s residence is 6.3km (3.9 miles) from Maitighar, while the vice president’s residence is about 4.3km (2.7 miles) from the original protest location.
Police used tear gas and water cannon on the protesters. The demonstrators hit back with tree branches and water bottles, local media reported. According to a message on NGO Hami Nepal’s communication channel, authorities fired rubber bullets at the protesters.
Basyal said he “saw people get hit with rubber bullets, and were bleeding, being carried to the ambulances”. He said tear gas and water cannon were used to disperse protesters.
Fourteen people were killed after the police opened fire on the protesters. The deceased have not been identified. The Kathmandu Post reported that they succumbed to their injuries while receiving treatment at Civil Hospital and National Trauma Centre.
Local news outlets also reported that dozens of protesters were injured in the firing and were receiving treatment in different hospitals in Kathmandu, including Civil Hospital and Everest Hospital.
