Hundreds of people gathered in Nepal's capital on Sunday to protest the government's drive to evict landless squatters without providing alternative resettlement.
Get breaking news anytime, anywhere. Download the TOI app now!
Organised by the Joint National Squatters Front, the demonstration outside the Singhdurbar Secretariat in Kathmandu called on the government to halt evictions and ensure housing for affected families.
Separately, flooding on Friday night inundated a government-run holding centre in Kathmandu's Kirtipur, where around 150 landless squatters had been staying, forcing security personnel to evacuate the residents.
On Saturday, a group of Gen Z activists visited the site to assess the situation but were baton-charged and detained by police. One activist sustained facial injuries and was admitted to a local hospital, as cited by PTI.
Police on Sunday detained 26 people who staged a sit-in outside the Morang District Police Office in Koshi Province to protest the alleged mistreatment of Gen Z activists by security personnel.
The protests come months after the government launched an eviction drive in April, dismantling settlements occupied by landless families across the Kathmandu Valley and other parts of the country, affecting more than 15,000 people from around 2,600 families.
Of those displaced, 325 families were accommodated in temporary holding centres across Kathmandu. The government directed residents to vacate the centres by July 6, but more than 60 families were still staying there as of Thursday.
Meanwhile, earlier this week, 25-year-old Ganesh Nepali set himself on fire outside the Department of Passports in Tripureshwar following a dispute with Kathmandu Metropolitan City municipal police, who had wheel-clamped his motorcycle over an alleged parking violation, as cited by the Kathmandu Post.
The confrontation also involved damage to his mobile phone. Nepali succumbed to severe burn injuries at Bir Hospital on Friday morning.
He had mortgaged his family's land to purchase the motorcycle and relied on ride-hailing services as his primary source of income.
The incident has sparked widespread public outrage, with anger extending beyond the local administration to the federal government led by Prime Minister Balen Shah.
