Analysis

Trends of Violence And Contestation In Nepal, June - August

2020-10-11

From June - August 2020 the PMP recorded 1319 incidents of which 728 were violent and 591 non-violent incidents. This marked an increase in non-violent incidents by 90 percent and 20 percent in violent incidents compared to March - May. This rise incidents were mainly due to an increase in prohibitory orders and cases of defiance of the orders, increase in protests and demonstrations, against the government’s response to COVID-19, political protests in support of and against Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli, protests against the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) compact, and the citizenship amendment bill.

Violence killed 108 people and injured 493. The primary triggers of fatal violence were disputes of a personal nature and gender-based violence which claimed the lives of 39 and 32 people, respectively. Some reports claim that the lockdown increased the cases of GBV as many women and girls are trapped with their abuser unable to reach out for support. There were four cases of torture of detainees in which two people died of the injures inflicted upon them while under custody and two cases were of apparent suicides where family suspect they died of torture.

In the period under review the PMP recorded 497 incidents related to governance, 214 of which related to the government's response to the COVID-19 pandemic. This is an increase by 47 percent of COVID-19 related incidents compared to the previous three months (March to May). However, the focus of COVID-19 related incidents shifted from an earlier focus on government's relief efforts or substandard quarantine centers to issues related to healthcare management and the enforcement of lockdown. Protests saw the emergence of the so-called “enough is enough” campaign or included demonstrations of businessmen and labourers as their livelihoods had been severely affected by the lockdown. Similarly, health workers protested against several incidents of assaults.

From June to August, the PMP also recorded 160 incidents related to political issues of which 100 were non-violent incidents, including 74 protests. At least 42 politically significant arrests were made which mainly involved the cadres of the Communist Party of Nepal (CPN) led by Netra Bikram Chand (Biplov).


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