“SILENCING AN ENTIRE GENERATION”
Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli, 73, in a letter issued overnight, after an emergency cabinet meeting where the interior minister resigned, said he was “deeply saddened” by the deaths.
“The government was not in favour of stopping the use of social media and will ensure an environment for its use”, Oli wrote in a letter, adding that an “investigation committee will be formed to investigate and analyse” the protests.
Nepal’s Minister for Communication Prithvi Subba Gurung was quoted by local media as saying that the government has withdrawn its ban.
The ban fed into anger at the government in a country where unemployment hovers around 10 per cent and GDP per capita at just US$1,447, according to the World Bank.
Crowds held protests on Monday in the capital and other cities.
Police in Kathmandu clashed with the crowds when protesters pushed through barbed wire and tried to storm into a restricted area near parliament.
Seventeen people were killed in Kathmandu, police said, and two more in the eastern district of Sunsari, according to local media.
Kathmandu police spokesman Shekhar Khanal said about 400 people were injured, including more than 100 police.
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