Nepal’s ex-PM Oli arrested over role in protest crackdown

Nepal’s former prime minister KP Sharma Oli and ex-home minister Ramesh Lekhak were arrested Saturday morning over their alleged involvement in a deadly crackdown on protestors in September, police said.

The detentions come a day after Prime Minister Balendra Shah and his cabinet were sworn in after the first elections since the 2025 uprising that toppled 74-year-old Oli’s government.

“They were arrested this morning and the process will move forward according to the law,” Kathmandu Valley police spokesman Om Adhikari told AFP.

At least 77 people were killed in the anti-corruption youth uprising on September 8 and 9, which began over a brief social media ban, but tapped into longstanding fury over economic hardship.

At least 19 young people were killed in a crackdown on the first day of protests.

The unrest spread nationwide the following day as parliament and government offices were set ablaze, resulting in the government’s collapse.

During the caretaker administration a government-backed commission into the deadly uprising recommended the prosecution of Oli and other officials.

The report said that it was “not established that there was an order to shoot”, but said that “no effort was made to stop or control the firing and, due to their negligent conduct, even minors lost their lives”.

Oli has previously denied ordering security forces to open fire on protesters. He told AFP during his failed bid for re-election in the March 5 poll that he blames “infiltrators” for the violence.