Nepal’s Gen Z Uprising Probe: Shoddy Report, Hasty Action |
The Pulse | Politics | South Asia
Nepal’s Gen Z Uprising Probe: Shoddy Report, Hasty Action
There are suspicions that the probe committee investigating the violence during the two-day protests wanted to protect some people from prosecution.
Nepali youth protest in front of a government office at Bharatpur, Nepal, which was set alight on Sep. 9, 2025, the second day of the two-day uprising that brought down the K.P. Sharma Oli government.
Early on March 28, former Prime Minister K.P. Sharma Oli and his home minister, Ramesh Lekhak, were arrested. Curiously, the investigation report that provided the basis for their arrests has yet to be made public.
The Oli government was ousted during the two-day Gen Z uprising in September last year. The interim government of Sushila Karki had set up a committee to look into the killings and violence during those two days, when 77 people died and properties worth over $500 million were damaged.
Even as the investigation report was ready, the outgoing Karki government chose to sit on it. Perhaps it feared that the release of the report before the March 5 elections would spoil the poll climate.
The new government of the Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP), which took office on March 27, is yet to officially release the report either. Yet, recently, it was leaked to the media.
The government, led by Balendra Shah, swung into action based on the same leaked report, and arrested Oli and Lekhak.
Among other things, the report recommended a criminal investigation of the two leaders for their “negligence” on the first day of the two-day uprising. This negligence, the report concludes, led to the deaths of 19 unarmed youths on September 8.
It also asks for investigations into the roles of senior bureaucrats and security officials who were implicated in the suppression of the protesting youth on the first day of the demonstrations. For instance, along with Oli and Lekhak, the committee recommended a criminal investigation against the then-inspector general of police, Chandra Kuber Khapung. Investigation was also recommended against other senior bureaucrats and security officials.
Yet the report made some critical omissions. For instance, while those responsible for trying to suppress the uprising on September 8 are named and recommended for investigation, the report is curiously silent on the events of September 9, the second day of the uprising that saw the torching of government buildings and businesses and deaths of over 50 people.
The committee said it did not have “enough time” to investigate events on the second day. However, it had been explicitly mandated to look into the causes of violence on both days and to hold those responsible to account. This, in turn, has raised suspicions that the committee, formed by a government at the request of the Gen Z protesters, wanted to protect some people from prosecution.
A jail warden in Kathmandu is on record saying that he was intimidated into signing documents for the release of Rabi Lamichhane — the chair of RSP that later took ownership of the Gen Z uprising — on the second day. (Lamichhane was behind bars for his role in embezzlement of funds from various cooperatives.) Yet the probe report mentions nothing about this case.
In fact, the report is a shoddy document. Going way beyond its remit, it delves into such unrelated things as qualifications to be good journalists and lawyers. That makes its selective use all the more troubling.
If the report was problematic, the subsequent actions of the new Shah government were also rash. Just a day after its formation, it arrested Oli and Lekhak, even though the report was still under wraps, further fueling doubts about political vendetta. While Oli and Lekhak were promptly arrested, there has been no action against security officials and bureaucrats named in it.
Besides arresting senior political leaders implicated in suppressing the Gen Z uprising, the new government has since announced a separate probe into the events of the second day of the uprising. Yet the new panel, which will be formed at least seven months after the September uprising, could struggle to collect enough credible evidence. There will also be doubts over its credibility since it will be cobbled together by a government whose representatives have a direct stake in the probe’s outcome.
But for now, the government will meet with little opposition. Oli was a widely reviled figure. It was the Oli government’s decision to ban social media that sparked the protests that eventually led to the Gen Z uprising. Even as Nepal’s youth were organizing anti-government protests against the social media ban and what they saw as deep-rooted corruption, instead of trying to talk to the protesting youth to defuse the tension, Oli actually mocked their ability to organize against his government.
Yet the new RSP government could easily have waited for a few more days in order to get court orders for Oli’s arrest. Urgency cannot come in the way of the right legal course.
The new government has also opened a slew of new investigations against ex-political leaders and bureaucrats. These, too, are popular measures, because those now being investigated were widely seen as corrupt figures. But the shortcuts taken, both during the preparation of the Gen Z commission report and in the arrests of senior political leaders, raise serious doubts about the commitment of the major post-uprising stakeholders to due process.
Get to the bottom of the story
Subscribe today and join thousands of diplomats, analysts, policy professionals and business readers who rely on The Diplomat for expert Asia-Pacific coverage.
Get unlimited access to in-depth analysis you won't find anywhere else, from South China Sea tensions to ASEAN diplomacy to India-Pakistan relations. More than 5,000 articles a year.
Unlimited articles and expert analysis
Weekly newsletter with exclusive insights
16-year archive of diplomatic coverage
Ad-free reading on all devices
Support independent journalism
Already have an account? Log in.
Early on March 28, former Prime Minister K.P. Sharma Oli and his home minister, Ramesh Lekhak, were arrested. Curiously, the investigation report that provided the basis for their arrests has yet to be made public.
The Oli government was ousted during the two-day Gen Z uprising in September last year. The interim government of Sushila Karki had set up a committee to look into the killings and violence during those two days, when 77 people died and properties worth over $500 million were damaged.
Even as the investigation report was ready, the outgoing Karki government chose to sit on it. Perhaps it feared that the release of the report before the March 5 elections would spoil the poll climate.
The new government of the Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP), which took office on March 27, is yet to officially release the report either. Yet, recently, it was leaked to the media.
The government, led by Balendra Shah, swung into action based on the same leaked report, and arrested Oli and Lekhak.
Among other things, the report recommended a criminal investigation of the two leaders for their “negligence” on the first day of the two-day uprising. This negligence, the report concludes, led to the deaths of 19 unarmed youths on September 8.
It also asks for investigations into the roles of senior bureaucrats and security officials who were implicated in the suppression of the protesting youth on the first day of the demonstrations. For instance, along with Oli and Lekhak, the committee recommended a criminal investigation against the then-inspector general of police, Chandra Kuber Khapung. Investigation was also recommended against other senior bureaucrats and security officials.
Yet the report made some critical omissions. For instance, while those responsible for trying to suppress the uprising on September 8 are named and recommended for investigation, the report is curiously silent on the events of September 9, the second day of the uprising that saw the torching of government buildings and businesses and deaths of over 50 people.
The committee said it did not have “enough time” to investigate events on the second day. However, it had been explicitly mandated to look into the causes of violence on both days and to hold those responsible to account. This, in turn, has raised suspicions that the committee, formed by a government at the request of the Gen Z protesters, wanted to protect some people from prosecution.
A jail warden in Kathmandu is on record saying that he was intimidated into signing documents for the release of Rabi Lamichhane — the chair of RSP that later took ownership of the Gen Z uprising — on the second day. (Lamichhane was behind bars for his role in embezzlement of funds from various cooperatives.) Yet the probe report mentions nothing about this case.
In fact, the report is a shoddy document. Going way beyond its remit, it delves into such unrelated things as qualifications to be good journalists and lawyers. That makes its selective use all the more troubling.
If the report was problematic, the subsequent actions of the new Shah government were also rash. Just a day after its formation, it arrested Oli and Lekhak, even though the report was still under wraps, further fueling doubts about political vendetta. While Oli and Lekhak were promptly arrested, there has been no action against security officials and bureaucrats named in it.
Besides arresting senior political leaders implicated in suppressing the Gen Z uprising, the new government has since announced a separate probe into the events of the second day of the uprising. Yet the new panel, which will be formed at least seven months after the September uprising, could struggle to collect enough credible evidence. There will also be doubts over its credibility since it will be cobbled together by a government whose representatives have a direct stake in the probe’s outcome.
But for now, the government will meet with little opposition. Oli was a widely reviled figure. It was the Oli government’s decision to ban social media that sparked the protests that eventually led to the Gen Z uprising. Even as Nepal’s youth were organizing anti-government protests against the social media ban and what they saw as deep-rooted corruption, instead of trying to talk to the protesting youth to defuse the tension, Oli actually mocked their ability to organize against his government.
Yet the new RSP government could easily have waited for a few more days in order to get court orders for Oli’s arrest. Urgency cannot come in the way of the right legal course.
The new government has also opened a slew of new investigations against ex-political leaders and bureaucrats. These, too, are popular measures, because those now being investigated were widely seen as corrupt figures. But the shortcuts taken, both during the preparation of the Gen Z commission report and in the arrests of senior political leaders, raise serious doubts about the commitment of the major post-uprising stakeholders to due process.
Biswas Baral is the Editor of The Kathmandu Post and a columnist for The Diplomat. He writes on Nepal’s domestic politics and foreign policy.
Balendra Shah government