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Nepali protesters demand release of detained ex-PM

Pakistan, Afghanistan trade heavy fire KABUL: Afghanistan and Pakistan have traded heavy fire, both sides said, days after they announced a temporary pause in fighting, escalating tensions in the volatile region as Islamabad prepares to host talks between the US and Iran. The border clashes came on Sunday, the day Pakistan hosted regional powers to discuss de escalation in the war in the Middle East, with an announcement that Islamabad could host the talks in coming days. Both sides used artillery and heavy weapons to hit locations in Afghanistan’s Kunar province and its bordering district of Bajur in Pakistan, officials said. Pakistan’s fire killed at least one person and injured another 16, most of them women and children, said Hamdullah Fitrat, a deputy spokesperson for Kabul’s administration. Pakistan only responded to heavy shelling from Afghanistan, security officials said, denying that it targeted any civilian locations. The officials declined to be identified as they were not authorised to speak to media. The Pakistani military did not respond to a request for a comment. Pakistan and Afghanistan’s worst fighting in years erupted last month, claiming heavy human losses on both sides. Kabul said more than 400 people were killed in a Pakistani airstrike on a drug rehabilitation centre in the Afghan capital this month before the neighbours suspended fighting. Pakistan rejected Afghanistan’s statements about the strike, saying it had “precisely targeted military installations and terrorist support infrastructure”. – Reuters

o Court extends detention order by five days

Lawyers for Oli have submitted a petition to the Supreme Court for his release. The commission report said statements given by Oli and Lekhak, claiming ignorance of the violence, were an attempt to shift responsibility and amounted to “criminal negligence”. It recommended that they be investigated under a law that deals with death caused by recklessness. Ex-energy minister Deepak Khadka was also detained on Sunday in a money laundering investigation. The unrest in September 2025 began over a brief social media ban but tapped into longstanding fury over economic hardship. It spread nationwide resulting in the collapse of Oli’s government. – AFP

old parliament building, set on fire in the September violence in which at least 76 people were killed. The arrests of Oli and Lekhak came after a commission recommended that the four-time prime minister and other officials be prosecuted for failing to stop security forces from opening fire on demonstrators. “Release KP Oli,” around 300 protesters chanted. “Scrap the commission report.” Oli, who has health issues, appeared in court via video-link from hospital on Sunday, where an order was given to extend his detention for five days. The two men were arrested over their alleged involvement in the protest crackdown. Neither has been charged and both deny responsibility for the violence.

KATHMANDU: Nepalis yesterday demanded the release of former prime minister KP Sharma Oli, arrested for his alleged role in a deadly crackdown on 2025 protests that ousted him. Oli, 74, and ex-home minister Ramesh Lekhak were arrested in pre-dawn raids on Saturday, a day after Prime Minister Balendra Shah was sworn in following the first elections since the September uprising. Heavy police deployments yesterday barred the protests as they neared the charred Hundreds of

Furuya ... has not visited China in decades. – REUTERSFILEPIC

China sanctions Japan PM aide

BEIJING: China imposed sanctions yesterday on Japanese lawmaker Keiji Furuya, a close aide of Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi, due to his “collusion with Taiwan independence” forces. Beijing will bar Furuya’s entry into China and freeze his property and other assets in the country effective immediately, China’s Foreign Ministry said. Furuya, as the head of a cross-party Japan Taiwan lawmakers group, has visited Taiwan many times accompanying Japanese political leaders, most recently earlier this month to meet its President Lai Ching-te in Taipei. The ministry accused Furuya of colluding with “separatist forces” in Taiwan, as he made trips to the island. China objects to official visits by foreign politicians to the island as they are seen to be undermining the “One China” principle. Taiwan’s government rejects Beijing’s sovereignty claims. The ministry said Furuya’s actions “constitute gross interference in China’s internal affairs and undermine China’s sovereignty”. Furuya said visiting Taiwan is a natural function of the parliamentary group he leads, adding he had not visited mainland China in decades and had no assets there. – Reuters

Supporters of Oli march in protest in Kathmandu. – REUTERSPIC

Australian fugitive shot dead MELBOURNE: Australian police said yesterday they shot a fugitive wanted for killing two officers, ending a seven-month manhunt.

several weeks, they said. “The place is off the grid entirely. I honestly don’t think it’s a place you just stumble across. You have to know where it is,” said Thologolong resident Jasmine Teese. “There’s no house there. The man who resides there lives in a collection of caravans, containers and old cars,” she said. Police believed Freeman may have evaded capture with the help of sympathetic locals. “It would be very difficult for him to get to where he was without assistance,” Bush said. – AFP

him after he refused pleas to surrender. “Everything I know at this point tells me that this shooting was justified,” Bush told reporters. “There was a standoff. There was an opportunity for him to surrender peacefully, which he did not.” The state coroner would now confirm the identity of the body and cause of death. Two local residents told AFP Freeman had been shot at a property in Thologolong, near the border of New South Wales and Victoria states. The property’s owner had been away for

Desmond Freeman fled into dense bushland in August last year after shooting and killing two police officers who came to search his rural home in Victoria state. Hundreds of police have pursued Freeman through the region’s rugged terrain over the past seven months. Police tracked Freeman to a caravan parked on a “very remote” property in rural Victoria, police commissioner Mike Bush said, shooting