AGENCIES

Police clashed with young protesters yesterday in Kathmandu, killing at least 19 people as the unrest in the Himalayan country over the social media ban turned into a wider protest against endemic corruption.

Some protesters tried to storm the parliament complex by breaking through a barricade, a local official said, setting fire to an ambulance, and hurling objects at riot police.

Police responded with rubber bullets, tear gas, water cannon and baton-charges.

Nepal’s Home Minister Ramesh Lekhak resigned yesterday on “moral grounds”. He tendered his resignation to Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli during a Cabinet meeting at the prime minister’s residence in Baluwatar yesterday evening.

According to The Kathmandu Post, at least 400 people were injured in the clashes.

“The police have been firing indiscriminately,” one protester told the ANI news agency. “(They) fired bullets which missed me but hit a friend who was standing behind me. He was hit in the hand.”

Nepali media reported police used live fire against the protesters, a claim AFP could not immediately verify.

“Sixteen people have sadly died,” Shekhar Khanal, spokesman for the Kathmandu valley police, told AFP. “About a hundred are under treatment, including police.”

However, a Reuters report put the death toll at 19.

The district administration imposed a curfew in several key areas of the city, including the parliament, the president’s residence and Singha Durbar, which houses the prime minister’s office.

Ekram Giri, a parliamentary spokesperson, said some protesters had entered the parliament premises but not the main building,

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