Police still using Second World War-era hunting rifles

A silver lining amid all these unfortunate events is that local communities are closer to the police, as displayed by their efforts to rebuild damaged police infrastructure.

The Gen Z protests on September 8 exposed multiple lapses in the Nepal Police’s crowd control mechanism, resulting in 19 deaths in a day. The riots on September 9, triggered partially by the brutal display of force a day prior, left hundreds of police stations across the country in ruins. Police officers were killed, and many were physically assaulted, leaving the police force with low morale. The riots also resulted in hundreds of weapons being looted from the police and thousands of prisoners breaking free. The Post ’s Biken K Dawadi sat down with former Additional Inspector General of Police (AIG) Pushkar Karki to discuss the lapses in crowd control and commanding mechanism, usage of non-lethal weapons and the security situation for upcoming elections. Excerpts: