Nepal Police Command Under Scrutiny Over Deadly Gen Z Protest Shootings

A Radio Order at the Centre of Nepal's Killings

At 12:40 PM on September 8, 2025, a police radio command in Kathmandu told officers to "deploy necessary force" against thousands of young protesters outside Nepal's parliament. A curfew had been imposed ten minutes earlier. An investigation identifies the officer using the call sign "Peter 1" as Chandra Kuber Khapung, then Inspector General of Nepal Police, and says the instruction authorized live ammunition.

By dusk, 19 unarmed civilians were dead in the capital. Over the following 24 hours, the death toll reached 77. The unrest became the country's worst since its decade of civil war ended in 2006 and brought down the government of Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli.

Seventeen-year-old Shreeyam Chaulagain was among those killed on the first day. Video shows the secondary school student wearing a green school jumper and carrying a backpack as he walked away from the crowd. A bullet struck the back of his head. He had told his mother that police would never target children wearing school uniforms.

The BBC World Service investigation, produced through BBC Eye Investigations, examined an internal police log and more than 4,000 videos and photographs. It presents the most comprehensive reconstruction yet of the violence, describing failures in the chain of command, gaps in intelligence and lethal force used against demonstrators who, according to multiple independent assessments, posed no imminent threat to life.

Khapung, who retired in November 2025, has not denied issuing the instruction. He says a government security committee authorized his actions after other crowd control measures were exhausted. Chhabi Lal Rijal, the Chief District Officer who chaired that committee, denied authorizing live rounds in court testimony. As of March 1, 2026, responsibility for the shootings remains unresolved.

Why Young Nepalis Took to the Streets

Nepal's Generation Z, described in the movement as people aged roughly 14 to 29, had spent months organizing online against corruption and nepotism. Their anger focused on the contrast between ordinary families' lives and the wealth displayed by the children of powerful politicians.

The viral "nepo baby" hashtag gathered images of designer gifts piled like Christmas trees, holidays at five-star resorts and extravagant weddings that closed public roads. Accounts belonging to children of ministers and former prime ministers became visible symbols of privilege in a country where youth unemployment exceeds 20% and annual income per person remains below $1,400.

Approximately three million young Nepalis work overseas because of limited opportunities at home. For many, the choice was between unemployment in Nepal and insecure work in Gulf states. The online displays of wealth sharpened frustration with a political system they believed rewarded family connections.

On September 4, the government banned 26 social media platforms, including Facebook, Instagram, X, YouTube and WhatsApp. It said the platforms had failed to register under new rules intended to combat misinformation and cybercrime. Critics described the ban as censorship designed to silence dissent.

The restrictions cut off communication channels used by millions for work, education and expression. Organizers moved to Discord, a gaming chat platform, and planned a peaceful demonstration outside parliament on September 8. Members of the "Youth Against Corruption" forum coordinated arrangements and encouraged participants to wear school uniforms to underline their nonviolent intentions.

Shreeyam Chaulagain's father recalled his son's concern about the country and his determination to attend the protest.

He said corruption had hollowed out [Nepal].

By 9:00 AM on September 8, approximately 30,000 young people had gathered at Maitighar Mandala, a busy intersection in central Kathmandu, carrying banners reading "Youth Against Corruption." The turnout was ten times larger than security forces expected.

A Command Room Without a Clear View

Senior officials from the civilian police, army, armed police and intelligence agencies assembled in a situation room near Nepal's central administrative complex, almost 3 kilometers from the protesters. Rijal led the meeting.

The room had a television but no stable internet connection. Officials could not access live CCTV footage around parliament. Police officers present that day said no single person or unit had a complete picture of events on the streets.

Police later acknowledged that they did not understand how Generation Z organized through social media or how online discussions could bring so many people into the streets. The unexpectedly large crowd met a command structure that was struggling to follow its movements.

At 11:47 AM, protesters breached barricades and moved toward parliament. Commanders struggled to judge whether the crowd represented a threat to national security or an outpouring of public frustration. At 12:15 PM, some demonstrators climbed the walls of the parliamentary compound, and police used tear gas and batons.

Officers inside the compound requested permission to fire live ammunition after water cannons and rubber bullets failed to disperse the crowd. An anonymous police officer described injuries and fear among personnel during the confrontation.

Some of us were badly hurt.

One of us asked to be rescued.

The curfew announced at 12:30 PM made the protests illegal, but many participants could not hear the announcement. Stones struck police lines, and field commanders repeatedly sought authorization to use lethal force. Ten minutes later, the police log records "Peter 1" telling officers that the curfew was already in place and further permission was unnecessary to deploy necessary force.

The Hours That Led to Fatal Shootings

The sequence reconstructed from police communications and video places the radio instruction between the curfew declaration and the first recorded fatal shooting. The events unfolded over less than five hours.

• September 4, 2025: The government banned 26 social media platforms.
• September 8, 9:00 AM: Approximately 30,000 protesters gathered at Maitighar Mandala.
• 11:47 AM: Demonstrators breached barricades and surged toward parliament.
• 12:15 PM: Some protesters climbed the compound walls, and police responded with tear gas and batons.
• 12:30 PM: Authorities imposed a curfew that many protesters could not hear.
• 12:40 PM: "Peter 1" instructed officers to "deploy necessary force."
• 1:15 PM: Binod Maharjan, 34, was carried away with a fatal head wound. He later died in hospital.
• 2:09 PM: Video captured Shreeyam Chaulagain being shot in the back of the head.
• 2:21 PM: Yogendra Nyaupane, 24, died as footage showed police firing at people scattering outside parliament.

Police records examined by Harvard's Atrocity Prevention Lab show that security forces fired 2,642 live bullets, 1,884 rubber rounds and 6,279 tear gas shells over the three hours following the first fatal shooting.

What the Videos and Medical Findings Show

Analysis of six specific shootings found no evidence that the victims were acting violently when they were struck. Forensic reports from Tribhuvan University Teaching Hospital found that nearly all people wounded by gunfire had been hit above the waist, mainly in the head, neck and chest.

Nepal's crowd control regulations require any live rounds to be aimed below the knee. The locations of the wounds directly violated that requirement. The medical findings also help explain why so many injuries were severe.

Shreeyam Chaulagain was walking away from the front line, where other protesters were throwing stones, when he was shot at 2:09 PM. The video shows his backpack and green school jumper. He claps his hands in a gesture that appears calm before the bullet hits and he collapses. He was neither throwing objects nor threatening officers.

At 2:21 PM, footage shows police firing seven shots from inside the parliamentary compound toward protesters scattering outside. Yogendra Nyaupane died at that time.

A journalist who documented the events described the shooting to Amnesty International, identifying several places from which security personnel fired.

The firing began wildly. From inside the parliament compound, from outside, and from armed units near the main gate.

Binod Maharjan, the 34-year-old carried away at 1:15 PM, had suffered a fatal head wound and died later in hospital. His case marked the first recorded death from live fire in the reconstruction.

Hospitals Faced Severe Injuries and Tear Gas

Civil Service Hospital received many of the wounded. By 2:00 PM, medical personnel described its emergency ward as resembling "a butcher's house." Doctors removed rubber bullets from patients' skulls.

A doctor who treated the wounded said around 50 to 60 percent of patients had severe injuries. That reversed the usual pattern in incidents involving many casualties, when most injuries are typically moderate.

Tear gas was also fired into hospital premises, disrupting emergency treatment. Patients already admitted, children and elderly people who had not taken part in the protests experienced breathing difficulties.

The combination placed emergency services under pressure from two directions: doctors were treating grave wounds while gas affected people inside the hospital. The wider unrest left more than 2,000 people injured.

When Police May Use Firearms

The United Nations Basic Principles on the Use of Force and Firearms say guns must never be used simply to disperse a gathering. Live ammunition is reserved for an imminent threat of death or serious injury, with appropriate warnings and a response proportionate to the danger.

A curfew restricts people's movement. The international standard for firing on a person remains tied to an immediate danger to life or a risk of serious injury. Human rights monitors later concluded that police had ignored those standards during the September 8 operation.

Meenakshi Ganguly, deputy Asia director at Human Rights Watch, condemned the shootings and called for those responsible to be held accountable.

The police shooting of demonstrators shows the administration's appalling disregard for the lives of its own citizens. The authorities need to hold those responsible for these killings to account instead of upholding the culture of impunity that has allowed the security forces to get away with murder.

Amnesty International documented failures to exhaust nonviolent methods before using force, dangerous use of weapons intended to be less lethal, and unnecessary lethal force where there was no imminent threat. The rubber bullets recovered from skulls and tear gas reaching hospital premises were among the troubling details of the response.

September 9 Brought a Wider Uprising

News of the killings spread on the evening of September 8 despite the social media blackout. By the next morning, a movement led by Generation Z had become a broader uprising, with tens of thousands of Nepalis of different ages taking to the streets.

The violence on September 9 exceeded that of the previous day. Protesters burned police stations, assaulted officers and targeted government buildings. Three police officers were killed. Arson attacks struck the parliamentary compound, the Supreme Court and the Singha Durbar administrative complex.

The residence of former Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba burned, as did Oli's home in Balkot. More than 1,200 police firearms and approximately 100,000 rounds of ammunition were looted from barracks.

Prison breaks at 28 facilities released more than 14,000 inmates. At Central Jail Sundhara alone, over 3,000 escaped between 8:00 PM and 10:00 PM on September 9. More than 5,000 inmates remained at large months later.

The shootings on September 8 and the attacks on September 9 form different stages of the crisis. The first day involved the police response to the youth demonstration. The following day brought widespread arson, attacks on officers, weapons theft and prison escapes as anger spread across the country.

Oli's Resignation and a Constitutional Dispute

At 2:30 PM on September 9, Oli resigned and his government collapsed. Former Chief Justice Sushila Karki was appointed interim prime minister on September 12, becoming Nepal's first female head of government.

Karki dissolved parliament and scheduled a general election for March 5, 2026, two years ahead of schedule. As of March 1, the vote was four days away, with the country still dealing with damaged institutions and unresolved deaths.

Her appointment also prompted a constitutional dispute. Article 132(2) of Nepal's Constitution bars former Supreme Court judges from holding government office. Legal experts debated whether selecting Karki violated that provision.

Supporters of the appointment invoked the doctrine of necessity, arguing that a technical violation was justified to prevent complete constitutional collapse. In simple terms, their argument was that an emergency required an exceptional decision to keep the state functioning.

The public displays of privilege that had helped fuel the protests also receded. Shrinkhala Khatiwada, daughter of a former health minister, shut down her Instagram account. Smita Dahal, granddaughter of a prime minister who served three times, made her account private.

Many other accounts belonging to the children of political leaders went silent or became private. The images that had drawn public anger disappeared from view, while the grievances about corruption, opportunity and family privilege remained unresolved.

Responsibility Remains Contested Before the Election

Nearly six months after the killings, no one has been held responsible. Khapung, Rijal, former Home Minister Ramesh Lekhak and former Prime Minister Oli have all denied ordering officers to fire on protesters.

Khapung's position contains a central dispute: he has not denied issuing the radio instruction, but says authorization came from the government security committee after other measures were exhausted. Rijal's court testimony denies that the committee authorized live ammunition.

Nepal Police says officers faced "an overwhelming situation where we had to respond to multiple incidents simultaneously." A public inquiry established by the government had not released its findings by March 1. Activists have questioned its credibility, suspecting political interference.

Nirajan Thapaliya, director of Amnesty International Nepal, called for transparency and accountability, linking the current demands for justice to failures after previous protests.

The young people killed and injured during the Gen-Z uprising deserve truth and justice. By failing to ensure accountability for past protest-related human rights violations, successive governments have allowed impunity to take root and undermine the rule of law.

Khapung has publicly challenged the BBC investigation, asking how sensitive police communications were obtained and describing the documentary as a "media trial" intended to influence the March 5 election. Some domestic media outlets have accused it of selective storytelling, saying it left out context about infiltrators and the violence committed by protesters on September 9.

The approaching election has made the dispute more urgent. Voters are preparing to choose a government while the public inquiry's findings remain unpublished and the competing accounts of authorization have not been resolved.

Families Wait as Security Forces Rebuild

Families of the 77 people killed continue to wait for answers. Shreeyam Chaulagain's mother, Karki, described the difficulty of accepting that her son would never return home.

I don't feel he's gone yet. I still feel he'll be back soon. In my mind, he's in his school uniform. He'll return, swinging his bag.

The weapons taken during the unrest remain a security threat. Joint patrols by the army, police and armed police operate nationwide as authorities try to restore public confidence before the election.

More than 400 police stations were destroyed or damaged, leaving units to work from temporary structures. The damaged buildings, missing firearms and thousands of escaped inmates still at large add to the practical demands facing security services.

For the families, the immediate issue is responsibility for the deaths. For the interim government, the March 5 vote arrives alongside unfinished investigations and the task of restoring damaged institutions. The capital's physical scars remain alongside the trauma of young people whose protest ended in lethal violence.

What to Know

• An investigation identifies former police chief Chandra Kuber Khapung as "Peter 1," who ordered officers to "deploy necessary force" at 12:40 PM on September 8, 2025.
• Nineteen unarmed civilians died in Kathmandu on the first day. The death toll reached 77 over two days, with more than 2,000 people injured.
• Seventeen-year-old Shreeyam Chaulagain was shot in the back of the head while walking away in his school uniform.
• The protests followed a ban on 26 social media platforms and months of anger over corruption and nepotism.
• Police records show 2,642 live bullets, 1,884 rubber rounds and 6,279 tear gas shells were fired over three hours.
• September 9 brought arson, the deaths of three police officers, the theft of more than 1,200 firearms and prison escapes involving over 14,000 inmates.
• Oli resigned on September 9. Sushila Karki became interim prime minister on September 12 and scheduled elections for March 5, 2026.
• As of March 1, no one had been held responsible for the killings, and the public inquiry had not released its findings.