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Katmandu: Nepal police on Monday opened fire, killing at least 17 people as thousands of young protesters took to the streets of Katmandu demanding the government lift a social media ban and tackle corruption.
Several social media sites — including Facebook, YouTube and X — have been inaccessible in Nepal since Friday after the government blocked 26 unregistered platforms, leaving users angry and confused.
Police used rubber bullets, tear gas, water cannon and batons when the demonstrators pushed through barbed wire and tried to storm into a restricted area near parliament.
“Seventeen people have died,” Shekhar Khanal, spokesman for the Katmandu valley police, told AFP.
Khanal said more than 400 people were injured, including over 100 police.
“I had been there for a peaceful protest, but the government used force,” said Iman Magar, 20, who was hit in his right arm.
“It was not a rubber bullet but a metallic one, and it took away a part of my hand. The doctor says I need to undergo an operation.”
Sirens rang through the city as the injured were taken to hospitals.
“I have never seen such a disturbing situation at the hospital,” said Ranjana Nepal, information officer at the Civil Hospital which received many of those wounded.
“Tear gas entered the hospital area as well, making it difficult for doctors to work,” she told AFP.
Anger poured over social media over the excessive use of force and death of young demonstrators.
Amnesty International called for a “thorough, independent and impartial investigation” into the deaths and said live ammunition had been used against protesters.
The district administration imposed a curfew in several key areas of the city, including the parliament, the president’s residence and Singha Durbar, which houses the prime minister’s office.
Some of the demonstrators had climbed over the wall into the parliament premises and its gate was vandalized.
Similar protests were organized in other districts across the country.
Popular platforms such as Instagram have millions of users in Nepal who rely on them for entertainment, news and business.
“We were triggered by the social media ban but that is not the only reason we are gathered here,” said student Yujan Rajbhandari, 24.
“We are protesting against corruption that has been institutionalized in Nepal.”
Another student, Ikshama Tumrok, 20, said 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 told AFP.
Demonstrators had started their protest in Katmandu with the national anthem and waving the country’s flag, before chanting against the social media stoppage and corruption.
There have been several corruption cases reported in the last few years involving ministers, former ministers and high-profile officials.
Since the ban, videos contrasting the struggles of ordinary Nepalis with the children of politicians flaunting luxury goods and expensive vacations have gone viral on TikTok, which is still operating.
“There have been movements abroad against corruption and they (the government) are afraid that might happen here as well,” said protester Bhumika Bharati.
The cabinet decided last month to give the affected social media firms seven days to register in Nepal, establish a point of contact and designate a resident grievance handling officer and compliance officer.
The decision came after a Supreme Court order in September last year.
In a statement on Sunday, the government said it respected freedom of thought and expression and was committed to “creating an environment for their protection and unfettered use.”
Nepal has restricted access to popular online platforms in the past.
The government blocked access to the Telegram messaging app in July, citing a rise in online fraud and money laundering.
It lifted a nine-month ban on TikTok in August last year after the platform agreed to comply with Nepali regulations.

LONDON: A new mural by elusive street artist Banksy showing a judge beating an unarmed protester with a gavel has appeared outside a London court.
The mural depicts a protester lying on the ground holding a blood-splattered placard while a judge in a traditional wig and black gown beats him with a gavel. Banksy posted a photo of the work Monday on Instagram, his usual method of claiming a work as authentic. It was captioned “Royal Courts Of Justice. London.”
While the artwork does not refer to a particular cause or incident, activists saw it as a reference to the UK government’s ban on the group Palestine Action. On Saturday almost 900 people were arrested at a London protest challenging the ban.
Defend Our Juries, the group that organized the protest, said in a statement that the mural “powerfully depicts the brutality unleashed” by the government ban. “When the law is used as a tool to crush civil liberties, it does not extinguish dissent, it strengthens it,” the statement said.
Security officials outside the courthouse covered the mural Monday with sheets of black plastic and two metal barriers, and it was being guarded by two officers and a CCTV camera.
Banksy began his career spray-painting buildings in Bristol, England, and has become one of the world’s best-known artists. His paintings and installations sell for millions of dollars at auction and have drawn thieves and vandals.
Banksy’s work often comments on political issues, with many of his pieces criticizing government policy on migration and war.
At the Glastonbury Festival last year, an inflatable raft holding dummies of migrants in life jackets was unveiled during a band’s headline set. Banksy appeared to claim the stunt, which was thought to symbolize small boat crossings of migrants in the Channel, in a post on Instagram.
The artist has also taken his message on migration to Europe.
In 2019, “The Migrant Child,” depicting a shipwrecked child holding a pink smoke bomb and wearing a life jacket, was unveiled in Venice. A year prior, a number of works including one near a former center for migrants that depicted a child spray-painting wallpaper over a swastika were discovered in Paris.
Banksy has also created numerous artworks in the West Bank and Gaza Strip over the years, including one depicting a girl conducting a body search on an Israeli soldier, another showing a dove wearing a flak jacket, and a masked protester hurling a bouquet of flowers. He also designed the “Walled Off Hotel” guesthouse in Bethlehem, which closed in October 2023.
Last summer, Banksy captured London’s attention with an animal-themed collection, which concluded with a mural of a gorilla appearing to hold up the entrance gate to London Zoo.
For nine days straight Banksy-created creatures — from a mountain goat perched on a building buttress to piranhas circling a police guard post to a rhinoceros mounting a car — showed up in unlikely locations around the city.