At least 51 people have been killed during violent anticorruption protests in Nepal this week, and thousands of prisoners who escaped during the chaos remain on the run, according to police, as the country’s former Chief Justice Sushila Karki appears set to be appointed interim prime minister.
Police spokesperson Binod Ghimire said on Friday that those killed so far this week included 21 protesters, nine prisoners, three police officers and 18 others, without elaborating. Another 1,300 people were injured as police fought to control crowds.
The announcement comes as political uncertainty engulfs the nation, with Nepal’s President Ramchandra Paudel and army chief Ashok Raj Sigdel preparing to meet later on Friday with Karki and a leading youth activist.
Ghimire added that more than 12,500 prisoners who escaped from multiple jails countrywide remain on the run. “About 13,500 prisoners had escaped – some have been recaptured, 12,533 are still at large.”
The dead included prisoners killed during or after their escape in clashes with Nepalese security forces.
Some of the fugitives have reportedly tried to cross into India, where scores have been apprehended by Indian border forces.
Nepal’s army, which has imposed a curfew, said that it had recovered more than 100 guns looted in the turmoil, with some protesters seen brandishing automatic rifles.
“Sushila Karki will be appointed interim prime minister,” a constitutional expert consulted by Paudel and Sigdel, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told Reuters news agency.
“They [Gen Z] want her. This will happen today,” the source added, referring to the “Gen Z” protesters whose name derives from the age of most participants.
Karki is “seen as an anticorruption voice, so she’s acceptable to a lot of the Gen Z groups that have been firing up this movement, because corruption has been a big issue,” said Al Jazeera’s Rob McBride, reporting from the capital Kathmandu. “But while she’s popular with them, she’s not necessarily popular with other groups … so she’s seen as a consensus candidate.”
Karki’s appointment is likely to be formally made after a meeting at Paudel’s residence, rescheduled to Friday afternoon from an initial time in the morning, according to a Gen Z source involved in the talks.
McBride, however, said that uncertainty remains over whether Karki can serve as an interim prime minister if she’s not a member of parliament, adding that this raises the prospect of Nepal dissolving its parliament or even overturning its constitution.
“But what is for sure is that Nepal is in for a long period of political uncertainty,” McBride said.
The president’s office and the army spokesperson did not respond to a request from Reuters for comment.
On Monday, the 21 protesters were killed in a police crackdown on demonstrations against a government ban on social media, corruption and poor governance.
On Tuesday, protesters set the parliament ablaze, KP Sharma Oli resigned as prime minister, and the army then took charge of the streets.
Wedged between India and China, Nepal has grappled with political and economic instability since the abolition of its monarchy in 2008, while a lack of jobs drives millions to seek work in other countries and send money home.
Shops began reopening on Friday, among signs that normalcy was returning in Kathmandu, with cars in the streets and police personnel taking up batons instead of the guns they carried earlier in the week.
Some roads stayed blocked, though streets were patrolled by fewer soldiers than before.
Authorities began handing the bodies of loved ones killed in the protests to mourning families.
“While his friends backed off (from the protests), he decided to go ahead,” Karuna Budhathoki said of her 23-year-old nephew, as she waited to collect his body at Kathmandu’s Teaching Hospital.
“We were told he was brought dead to the hospital.”
