AFP, Kathmandu

Nepal’s army said yesterday it has recaptured nearly 200 prisoners after mass jailbreaks during deadly protests that toppled the government, a fraction of the thousands on the run.

Around 13,500 detainees escaped from prisons nationwide during the chaos, police said, leaving security forces scrambling to regain control.

It has added to the challenges facing the army and police as they try to restore order in the wake of the most violent protests in decades.

“The Nepali Army has recaptured 192 prisoners,” the army said in a statement, saying they had fled jail in the southeastern city of Rajbiraj.

At another prison in Ramechhap, east of the capital Kathmandu, fighting erupted and the Nepali Army “opened fire, injuring 12 prisoners and killing two”, the statement added.

India’s border force said it had detained scores of fugitives who tried to sneak across the vast and porous frontier into the neighbouring states of Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal, before handing them back to Nepali authorities.

“We have detained and handed over at least 60 prisoners who escaped from multiple Nepali prisons,” an Indian border force official said, who was not authorised to speak to journalists.

Nepal’s army said it had also recovered nearly 100 weapons looted in the uprising, during which protesters were seen brandishing automatic rifles.