Authorities in Nepal have raised the death toll from last week’s unrest to 72 as search teams recover bodies from government offices, houses and other buildings set on fire during the anti-corruption protests, the Health Ministry said on Sunday.
In the deadliest outbreak of political violence in Nepal for decades, mainly young Nepalis took to the streets of the capital and other cities early last week, prompting Prime Minister K.P. Sharma Oli to resign on Tuesday.
Security forces fired tear gas and rubber bullets to disperse the protesters, some of whom torched state buildings, including the Supreme Court, parliament, police posts, politicians’ homes and private businesses.
“Bodies of many people who died in shopping malls, houses and other buildings that were set on fire or attacked are now being discovered,” health ministry spokesperson Prakash Budathoki said.
The ministry’s previous death toll was 51, updated as of Saturday. The latest data showed on Sunday that at least 2,113 people had been injured in the violence.
Former Chief Justice Sushila Karki has replaced Oli as interim prime minister, becoming the first woman to lead the Himalayan nation, and is tasked with holding a new parliamentary election called for March 5.
Karki, who formally took office on Sunday, said the government would pay compensation of 1 million rupees (about $7,100) to the families of those killed in the unrest and provide free treatment to the injured.
She began work in a building close to the prime minister’s office, which was set on fire during the protests.
“We must now engage in rebuilding the destroyed structures,” Karki told senior government officials, state television reported.
*Nepal’s PM Karki appoints ministers after deadly Gen Z protests*
Nepal’s Prime Minister Sushila Karki has named three new ministers, just days after the dissolution of parliament was triggered by deadly protests.
Karki, who on Friday became the Himalayan nation’s first female leader, made Om Prakash Aryal home minister, Rameshwar Prasad Khanal finance minister and Kulman Ghising energy minister on Monday.
Aryal is a human rights lawyer who has taken on legal cases in the public interest, Khanal is a former finance secretary who recently recommended major economic reforms, and Ghising is a former state power utility chief credited with ridding the country of its load-shedding problems.
In a ceremony broadcast on television from outside the fire-damaged presidential office, President Ramchandra Paudel swore in the three new ministers.
Known for their anticorruption stances, they will serve alongside Karki in an interim government that has promised to work towards ending corruption. It will govern the country for six months until national elections are held in early March.
Their appointments come less than a week after veteran leader KP Sharma Oli resigned as prime minister amid unrest that deepened when demonstrators were shot dead by police on Monday.
Led by Gen Z, the protests quickly escalated, with key public buildings, including Parliament, set ablaze.
The demonstrations started on September 8 over a short-lived social media ban and exacerbated burgeoning popular anger over systemic corruption and poverty.
At least 72 people died in last week’s violence, the Nepalese authorities said on Sunday.
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