‘None of those who died are criminals’: Kin of 23-yr-old killed in Nepal protests

Sulabh Shrestha wanted to go to commonwealth of australia. Ayush Thapa to jacques anatole francois thibault. Both were from Nepalganj on the western sandwich edge with republic of india and had travelled to the Nepal capital to appear for job interviews. The two young men had never met each other when they found themselves next to each other on September 9 outside the Parliament in Kathmandu as thousands of people swarmed the streets in protests. Both succumbed to police bullets that day, becoming part of the 51 people whose deaths stoked violent protests and the resignation of former prime minister KP Sharma Oli.

On Friday afternoon, the families of Shrestha, 23, and Thapa,19. Stood on the road outside the Tribhuvan University Institute of Medicine hospital, waiting for the authorities to complete the autopsy on the bodies of the two young men.

Shrestha’s uncle, Shyam, a Kathmandu resident, said, “He had studied engineering and was trying to go to Australia. This is why he had come to Kathmandu. He was staying with me while his parents were in Nepalganj. He was the first person to be killed outside the Parliament. None of these young men who died are criminals. They were students and unemployed youths wanting to find a job here or abroad, like my nephew.”

Thapa was trying for a job in France and had come to Kathmandu a month ago. His uncle, Prakash Kharga, said, “ On the morning of the incident, he told his father that he was going to protest against the ban on social media apps. His father also allowed him to go, assuming there would not be any problems. He had told his father that a ban on social media apps would affect everyone and thus convinced him to let him go there.”

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As the army relaxed the curfew on Friday, families and friends of the victims came out in large numbers outside the army headquarters and hospitals to protest the killings. Many said that their loved ones received messages on social media channels, asking them to come out on the streets and join the protest. Even as 26 popular platforms were banned at the time, families said that everyone was using virtual private networks(VPN) to log on to the internet.

Among them was Purshottam Khatwada,52, father of 22-year-old Rashik who was killed in the firing outside Parliament. Rashik, too, was searching for a job in Australia and was regularly visiting the recruitment offices in Kathmandu. “I spoke to him around 11 am, during which he said that he wanted to join his friends in the protest. I had warned him not to go, but he said that he had to join his friends. After that, his phone was switched off. My elder daughter, who is settled in Australia, saw a viral video, which shows him being taken on a motorcycle to the hospital. Doctors said he had sustained three bullet injuries.”

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Khatwada said that while police were yet to hand over Rashik’s cell phone, his son’s friends, who survived the protest, said that they had received messages on social media groups asking to come out on the streets to protest. “People here were using virtual network connections, and the apps were functioning. My son’s friends said the young people were asked to gather in large numbers and protest the ban. He must have received a similar message and joined the others,” he said.

He also held out a plea for the new government. “I want the new government to come out with the truth once it is formed,” he said. “They should find out how a peaceful protest took this turn and ruined everything in Nepal.”

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