Nepal Wire

Nepali Congress opens 15th convention as Deuba's invitation is left with his guard

Sun, 04 Oct 2026 00:28:36 +0000

File photo: “Tundikhel in 2014” by Solundir via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)

Nepali Congress, Nepal's oldest democratic party, opened its 15th General Convention at Kathmandu's Tundikhel open stage at 2 pm on Sunday, October 4, party spokesperson Devraj Chalise said, according to Nepal Press. Candidate nominations follow on Monday, October 5, with the convention's closed session and remaining programs running through Tuesday, October 6, OnlineKhabar reported.

The event matters beyond party ritual. Whoever wins the top posts this week will speak for the party. Delegates at Tundikhel begin choosing those contenders on Monday, ekantipur.com and Nepalnews.com reported.

The party organizing committee booked hotel rooms across Kathmandu for roughly 10,000 delegates and well-wishers, Khabarhub and Nepalnews.com reported. Eight parking sites went up around the venue for vehicles bringing participants and representatives, Nepal Press reported. Thirty health workers and two ambulances stood on standby, with health checks also run at the hotels, ekantipur.com reported.

The invitation that did not land

Sher Bahadur Deuba, a former prime minister and former Nepali Congress president, has urged a boycott of the convention, Desh Sanchar reported. He has refused to join the convention his rival Gagan Thapa now leads as party president, the Kathmandu Post reported. Thapa sent co-general secretary Yogendra Chaudhary to Deuba's residence to hand deliver an invitation asking him to attend as chief guest, OnlineKhabar and Nepal Press reported.

Chaudhary said the delegation never reached Deuba himself.

"We did not meet him, we went right inside the house. When we called Bhanuji, we could not reach him either. After that we went to the house, gave it to the security guard and came back," Chaudhary told OnlineKhabar, referring to Deuba's private secretary Bhanu Deuba.

Neither OnlineKhabar nor Nepal Press carries a response from Deuba or his office.

Deuba's camp calls the special convention that elected Thapa illegal, Desh Sanchar reported. It has filed its own schedule for a rival convention on December 7 to 9 with the Election Commission, Lokaantar reported on September 30.

What the coverage missed

None of the reports this article draws on carries Deuba's own account of the missed invitation, leaving a named public figure's intentions described only through his rival faction's telling.

Reports describing "10,000 delegates and well-wishers" booked into hotels do not say how many are credentialed voting delegates eligible to take part in Monday's nominations, as opposed to supporters along for the event.

What we still do not know

The Election Commission recognized the Thapa-led central committee in January, and the Supreme Court upheld that in April, the Kathmandu Post reported. A review petition from Deuba's side is pending, the Post reported. Whether that review changes the recognition is open.

Whether Deuba deliberately avoided the invitation or was genuinely unreachable is unresolved. Only Deuba or his private secretary Bhanu Deuba can settle it.

Who is paying to house and move roughly 10,000 people through the convention has not been disclosed. The organizing committee's finance arm would know.

Sources: Nepal Press, Nepal Press, OnlineKhabar, OnlineKhabar, ekantipur.com, ekantipur.com, Khabarhub, Nepalnews.com, Republica, Kathmandu Post, Kathmandu Post, Desh Sanchar, Lokaantar

Nepal to back five flood children as 933 hydropower missing from August go unmentioned

Fri, 02 Oct 2026 23:49:24 +0000

File photo: “A hydropower project on the Bhotekoshi River in Sindhupalchok District.” by Saddam19 via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)

Nepal's government will pay for school, upbringing and other basic needs for five children whose fathers went missing in the Bhotekoshi flood, until each turns 18, Republica reported on Friday, October 2. Republica described them as orphaned. The same day, a Malaysian national who vanished in the same flood walked back into his family's life, safe, after 37 days missing, according to Daily Excelsior and Malaysia's The Sun.

For families still waiting on word of a missing relative, these are the two outcomes Friday's coverage reported. One shows the state stepping in to support five children. The other shows a foreign government pushing hard for its own citizens. Neither story mentions the largest group NDRRMA broke out in its August 31 missing count. Nepal's own disaster authority counted 933 people tied to hydropower projects as missing on August 31.

Republica named the Ministry of Women, Children and Senior Citizens and its Long-Term Care Plan for Children Affected by Floods Who Require Special Protection as the program covering the five children, but did not name the children themselves or say how the support will be funded. The five children in Republica's report belong to one family, cited as an example case under the ministry's Long-Term Care Plan, not a stated national total.

In Malaysia, the rescued citizen is one of 55 who went missing after the flood struck on August 26, Daily Excelsior and The Sun reported. He returned home safe, a Malaysian government spokesperson confirmed, Malay Mail reported. Malay Mail reported 54 Malaysians still missing as of October 2. Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim has secured a fast track process to search for them, Malay Mail reported, after a call with Nepali officials.

In Tikapur, in western Nepal, a family stopped waiting. Nepal Press reported the cremation of Bir Bahadur Chaudhary, 35, of Samitipur in Tikapur Municipality-1, whose body was never recovered despite a long search after the flood. The family performed the rites using kush, a ritual grass Hindu families use when a body cannot be found, Nepal Press reported.

What the coverage missed

None of Friday's reports mention the 933 people tied to hydropower projects whom Nepal's disaster authority, NDRRMA, counted as missing on August 31, alongside 592 foreign nationals and 127 Nepalis who had been accompanying foreign tourists, Kathmandu Post reported. Nepal Wire found no later NDRRMA breakdown of that figure in the coverage it reviewed. Families of hydropower workers trapped in flooded tunnels were demanding answers, and opposition lawmakers accused the government of hesitating to accept foreign rescue help, Nepal News reported on September 1.

The official toll has moved, and none of the reports reviewed explain the gap. NDRRMA counted 903 dead and 4,247 missing on August 31, Kathmandu Post reported. Four days later, Nepal Police put the toll at 1,290 dead and 4,798 missing, The Himalayan Times reported, a missing count that rose rather than fell as search teams kept working. By October 2, Malaysian outlet FMT reported the flood had killed more than 1,450 people, without naming which Nepali agency supplied that number.

Of the 592 foreign nationals NDRRMA counted missing in August, only the 55 Malaysians drew sustained coverage and a prime minister's direct push in the reports Nepal Wire reviewed.

What we still do not know

Whether the ministry has released a nationwide count of flood orphaned children is a separate question for the Ministry of Women, Children and Senior Citizens.

Whether any of the 933 hydropower linked missing have been found, and whether the government brought in the foreign rescue expertise opposition lawmakers wanted, is a question for NDRRMA and the Ministry of Energy.

What Nepal's current, dated death toll and missing count actually are, five weeks on, is a question for NDRRMA or Nepal Police headquarters.

Sources: Republica, Daily Excelsior, Malay Mail, Malay Mail, The Sun (Malaysia), Free Malaysia Today, Nepal Press, Kathmandu Post, The Himalayan Times, Nepal News

Nepali Congress sets October 5 nominations as Deuba urges boycott

Fri, 02 Oct 2026 23:49:24 +0000

File photo: “SherBahadurDeuba” by Ashishlohorung via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 3.0)

Nepali Congress's Central Election Committee, which organises the party's internal vote, has set Monday, October 5, Ashoj 19 on the Nepali calendar, as the day to register nominations for the Central Working Committee, the panel that leads the party between conventions. Registration runs from 2pm to 6pm that day, DC Nepal reported. Party Vice President Bishwa Prakash Sharma told OnlineKhabar there will be no panel system this year. Delegates will vote for individual candidates of their choice, not a faction slate, he said at the convention venue in Khulamanch. About 7,500 delegates are expected to take part, Setopati reported.

That is the story most outlets are telling today. It is only half the story. Nepali Congress, one of Nepal's oldest political parties, is not holding one convention. It is holding two, two months apart.

Former Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba, who led Nepali Congress before the January special convention and now leads a rival faction, has urged party leaders and members not to attend the October convention at all. He called it the product of an "illegal special convention" and warned that going ahead without the majority of leaders would weaken the party, Desh Sanchar reported. Deuba's own camp has scheduled a separate general convention for Mangsir 21 to 23, which falls in roughly December 7 to 9, Desh Sanchar reported.

The split goes back to a special convention in January, where Gagan Thapa, now Nepali Congress president, won control of the party's leadership. Deuba's side challenged that vote in court. The Supreme Court ruled in Thapa's favour in April, Kathmandu Post reported. Deuba and Purna Bahadur Khadka then filed review petitions. In August the court agreed to review its own ruling, the paper reported on August 7. Thapa stays president until a fresh ruling, it reported. Kathmandu Post reported in August that Deuba's supporters wanted the entire convention process postponed until that review was decided.

The review has not stopped Thapa's side. The establishment faction scheduled its 15th General Convention for October 2 to 5, with ward level conventions scheduled from September 19, Kathmandu Post reported. Deuba's own ranks are thinning at the same time. More than 30 leaders who had backed Deuba are now moving toward Thapa's committee, after the party agreed to accommodate members earlier elected under Deuba's leadership, Kathmandu Post reported. Purna Bahadur Khadka, Nepali Congress's former acting president, led Deuba's faction for several months. He has since moved toward Thapa's committee, Kathmandu Post reported.

What the coverage missed

None of today's reports on the October 5 nomination date say whether the roughly 7,500 delegates include Deuba's camp at all. Nepali Congress has not published a breakdown by faction. Deuba's side is not filing nominations on October 5. It is building toward its own convention two months later instead.

The nominations are also going ahead while the Supreme Court reviews the ruling behind them. The court agreed in August to review its April verdict that backed Thapa's committee, Kathmandu Post reported on August 7. DC Nepal, Ekantipur, Setopati and OnlineKhabar did not raise this in reporting the nomination date.

What we still do not know

Whether Deuba's side will ask the Supreme Court to block or unwind decisions taken at the October convention before its own December gathering. The court's registrar and Deuba's lawyers could answer this.
How many of the party's roughly 7,500 delegates each faction now counts as its own. Nepali Congress's Central Election Committee has not published a breakdown.

Sources: DC Nepal, OnlineKhabar English, Setopati, Ekantipur, Desh Sanchar, Himal Press, Kathmandu Post, Kathmandu Post, Kathmandu Post

Mahottari's Jaleshwor Floods as Ratu River Embankment Breaks in Three Places

Thu, 01 Oct 2026 23:51:41 +0000

Illustration: AI generated with gpt-image-1. Made for Nepal Wire. Not a photograph.

The Ratu river's embankment broke in three places on Thursday, October 1, sending floodwater into Jaleshwor, the district headquarters of Mahottari district in Nepal's Madhesh province. Nagarik News and OnlineKhabar both reported the town was submerged after the breach.

The river broke through near Banchauri in Balawa Municipality, and at Gorigama and Madai in Mahottari rural municipality, according to Gorkhapatra. Floodwater then damaged standing paddy in six settlements, OnlineKhabar reported: Ratbara, Madai and Gorigama in Mahottari rural municipality, and Chhotka Ratbara, Bajrahi and Dhawauli in Jaleshwor municipality itself.

For farmers in those villages, this is the rice crop they feed their families on and sell at harvest. Ratopati quoted a local farmer saying the embankment breaks in the same places every year. Indradev Yadav, Mahottari's Chief District Officer, told OnlineKhabar that repair crews were already working to close the breaches and drain the flooded town.

None of the reports cited here gave any deaths, injuries or displaced households as of Thursday night. No outlet has put a monetary figure on the paddy losses either. Those numbers remain unknown a day after the breach.

What the coverage missed

This is not the first time the Banchauri stretch of the embankment has given way. Ratopati itself noted the same point broke last year too. Further back, the Kathmandu Post reported in 2021 that the Ratu river breached its embankment near Tilgadh and inundated about 900 houses there. A resident of Balawa told the paper the embankment "was in a dilapidated condition." No outlet has said that the Tilgadh stretch is the point that broke on Thursday. Ratopati reports that Banchauri, one of Thursday's three breach points, also failed last year.

Mahottari has had donor funded flood warning tools on the Ratu river for years. ICIMOD, the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development, says it installed three community based flood early warning systems along the Ratu river in Mahottari district to alert residents before water rises. ICIMOD's records place them upstream, near Bardibas, Kalapani and Lalgarh. No source says whether they still run or cover Banchauri, Gorigama or Madai. None of the reports on Thursday's breach say whether any of those systems sounded an alarm, or whether they worked at all.

The pattern goes back further still. The Kathmandu Post reported in 2019 that officials in the same province patched broken embankments with sandbags that were "not strong enough to contain water," after Ratu floodwater tore through Mahottari and neighboring districts. The paper's own reporting said flood prone districts there faced the same ordeal every year with no lasting fix. CDO Yadav has described emergency repair work. He has not said whether a permanent rebuild is planned.

What we still do not know

Were the ICIMOD early warning systems active on the Ratu river, and did any of them send an alert before Thursday's breach? ICIMOD or CDO Yadav's office could answer that.

How many households have been displaced, and were there any injuries or deaths? Nepal Police in Mahottari and the CDO's office would know.

What is the paddy damage in the six affected settlements worth in money? Mahottari's District Agriculture Knowledge Center has not yet assessed it.

Is sand and gravel extraction continuing near the breach points? Political parties in nearby Bardibas warned in 2023 that such extraction threatened the Ratu river's banks. Bardibas sits upstream on the same river from Thursday's breach points, according to an ICIMOD field report. Whether extraction there affects the breach points is unverified. Balawa Municipality or the Department of Mines and Geology could say whether it played any part here.

Repair crews were working to close the breaches as of Thursday, CDO Yadav told OnlineKhabar. No date has been given for when Jaleshwor's drainage will be complete, or for when the embankment itself will be rebuilt rather than patched again.

Sources: Nagarik News, OnlineKhabar, Ratopati, Gorkhapatra, The Kathmandu Post, The Kathmandu Post, ICIMOD, ReliefWeb / ICIMOD field report, Nepal Page

Nepal shifts Bhotekoshi flood response to recovery as officials count 5,285 missing

Thu, 01 Oct 2026 00:04:05 +0000

File photo: “Bhote Koshi Valley, Nepal” by Vyacheslav Argenberg via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 4.0)

The Nepal government has formally moved its Bhotekoshi flood response from active search and rescue into what officials call "search and recovery," more than a month after the August 26 disaster struck Rasuwa district and swept bodies downstream into at least seven more districts, Nuwakot, Dhading, Chitwan, Gorkha, Tanahun, Nawalparasi East and Nawalparasi West, according to Nepal Police figures reported by myRepublica.

The decision came from the 37th meeting of the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Executive Committee, held at the Ministry of Home Affairs in Singha Durbar and chaired by Home Minister Sudhan Gurung, Nepal Press reported. For families still waiting for news of a missing relative, the work now centres on finding and naming bodies. The NDRRMA chief says the government also wants to declare the missing legally dead so families can claim relief, the Kathmandu Post reported.

Dharma Raj Upreti, chief of the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Authority, or NDRRMA, Nepal's national disaster agency, told Radio Nepal at the same meeting that crews are still searching two tunnel sites for missing people. "In case of rescue, we have entered a new phase of work on rehabilitation and recovery," he said, according to Radio Nepal's English service.

Some 5,285 people are still listed as missing, Nepal Press reported. Nepal Police put the figure at 4,718 the same day, myRepublica reported. The two government counts have not been reconciled. Of 1,454 bodies and human remains recovered so far, only 112 have been identified, with 585 male, 336 female and 533 unidentified partial remains, Nepal Press reported. Of the bodies and remains found, 1,292 have already been buried under government procedure and 112 identified bodies handed to families. That leaves about 50 of the 1,454 recovered bodies and remains not covered by the burial and handover figures. The reports do not say where they are.

DNA testing is now running on 3,685 samples split between two laboratories, 1,957 at the Nepal Police Central Forensic Laboratory in Samakhushi and 1,728 at the National Forensic Laboratory, Radio Nepal reported. Teams of DNA experts from India, China, South Korea, the United States and Singapore are helping with the work, Nepal Press reported.

The Prime Minister's Natural Disaster Rescue Fund and the separate Prime Minister's Relief Fund together hold Rs 16.15 billion, roughly $121 million, according to the Office of the Prime Minister and Council of Ministers, as reported by Nepal Press and English Nepalnews. The Rescue Fund alone holds about Rs 12.05 billion in nine commercial banks plus about $2.71 million in two foreign currency accounts, DC Nepal and Radio Nepal reported. The government has disbursed Rs 1 billion, about $7.5 million, from the Prime Minister's funds to flood victims, Nepalnews reported.

The plan to declare the missing dead

A day before this meeting, NDRRMA chief Upreti told the Kathmandu Post in an interview published September 29 that the government is drafting a legal change to declare the roughly 5,285 people still missing as deceased, so their families can receive the same state relief as confirmed deaths. Under the existing Social Security Guidelines, a family gets Rs 200,000, about $1,500, when one member dies, plus Rs 100,000, about $750, for each additional death in the same family. Upreti said a draft had gone to the Law Ministry and that public feedback closed the day he spoke. Radio Nepal reported that the committee reviewed the specific legal obstacle driving the proposal: Clause 40 of the National Civil Code requires 12 continuous years of disappearance before a person can be declared dead, and Rule 17 of the National Identity Card and Registration Regulations bars local registrars from recording such a death without official certification. The draft amendment is meant to clear that hurdle.

What we still do not know

Has the Cabinet or Parliament actually passed the amendment letting the missing be declared dead, and when would it take effect?

How was the Rs 1 billion already paid out distributed, by household, by district or by confirmed death, and how many pending claims remain?

Will search teams, personnel or helicopters at the two remaining tunnel sites be scaled down now that the broader operation has shifted to recovery, and from what date?

Sources: Nepal Press, Nepal Press, DC Nepal, Radio Nepal Online, Radio Nepal Online, English Nepalnews, The Kathmandu Post, myRepublica

Himlung avalanche toll rises to seven dead, nine Nepali workers still missing

Thu, 01 Oct 2026 00:04:05 +0000

File photo: “ISS054-E-7853 - View of Nepal - Damodar Himal - Yakawa Khang - Khumjungar - Chhiv Himal - Labse Khola Valley - Lona Khola - Pokarkang - Bhri” by Earth Science and Remote Sensing Unit, NASA Johnson Space Center via Wikimedia Commons (Public domain)

Three more bodies came off Himlung Himal on Wednesday, September 30. That brought the confirmed death toll from Sunday's avalanche to seven, with nine people still missing, Manang Chief District Officer Mukti Prasad Khanal said, according to The Rising Nepal and OnlineKhabar English News.

All nine still missing are Nepali nationals, PTI, the Indian news agency, reported, citing officials. They are mountain guides and kitchen staff, part of a group of 22 workers who travelled from Kathmandu to the 7,126 metre peak in Manang's Nar Phu area about two weeks earlier to fix ropes and prepare the base camp for the autumn climbing season, ETV Bharat reported. Separate ETV Bharat coverage used 22 as an early missing count, which authorities corrected on Tuesday, September 29.

For nine Nepali families, Thursday, October 1, brings no answers yet. The three bodies recovered on Wednesday, September 30, those of Aash Gurung, 58, of Gorkha, Suraj Rai, 21, of Khotang, and Kalam Budha, 57, of Rukum, are scheduled to be flown from Chame to Tribhuvan University Teaching Hospital in Kathmandu on Thursday morning, Nepalnews reported, citing Assistant Chief District Officer Krishna Prasad Paudel. Four other workers died earlier in the week. Chhebi Bhote and Pasang Bhote were recovered on Sunday, September 27, the day of the avalanche. Birendra Gurung and Ghanshyam Rai were recovered the next day, Monday, September 28, HimalPress reported.

The avalanche struck on Sunday morning amid heavy rain and snow that also set off landslides and floods elsewhere in Nepal, PTI reported. A weather warning had gone out the week before, and rope-fixing teams had begun pulling off the mountain, expedition organiser Mingma Gyalje Sherpa said, as reported by Daily Pioneer. Some people stayed behind despite the worsening conditions, he said.

At least two companies employed the workers. Himalayan Holidays Nepal and Imagine Nepal Pvt Ltd, which Nepalnews calls Expedition Imagine Company, confirmed on the day of the avalanche that eight and two of their staff respectively were unaccounted for, Expedition Operators Association general secretary Rishi Bhandari told the Kathmandu Post, as reported by Daily Pioneer. By Monday, September 28, the combined toll stood at four dead and 12 missing, sixteen in all, a total that has held since. Wednesday's count of seven dead and nine missing still adds to sixteen.

A 14-member rescue team remains on the mountain, PTI reported. The Nepal National Mountain Guide Association, NNMGA, says its search is being led by IFMGA-certified guides Pasang Kaji Sherpa and Bikram Karki, supported by five more guides, HimalPress reported. It is not clear from the reports reviewed whether the seven NNMGA guides are part of the 14 member team PTI described or a separate group.

What the coverage missed

Three different voices have announced Wednesday's update, and it is not clear which one owns the official count. The Rising Nepal and OnlineKhabar name Manang CDO Mukti Prasad Khanal as the source of the toll. Nepalnews instead quotes Assistant CDO Krishna Prasad Paudel on the body transfers, and separately quotes NNMGA president Tul Singh Gurung saying "We have recovered three bodies from the avalanche today." HimalPress credits the NNMGA, not the district office, with coordinating the search itself.

What we still do not know

The nine still missing have not been named individually in any report reviewed for this story. The Manang District Administration Office could release a full list.

Whether the weather warning issued before September 27 changed how many workers stayed on the mountain is unaddressed in the reports reviewed. The Department of Tourism could answer that.

No report reviewed says whether the dead or missing carried high-altitude worker insurance, or whether Himalayan Holidays Nepal and Imagine Nepal Pvt Ltd have paid the nine families anything while they wait. The Department of Tourism and the two companies could answer that.

Sources: The Rising Nepal, OnlineKhabar English News, Nepalnews (English), HimalPress (English), HimalPress (English), PTI (via The Print), ETV Bharat, Daily Pioneer, Daily Pioneer

Government says ex-Chief Justice Rana was rescued, not arrested

Wed, 30 Sep 2026 00:54:38 +0000

Illustration: AI generated with gpt-image-1. Made for Nepal Wire. Not a photograph.

Nepal's government has now offered a third official explanation for why police took former Chief Justice Cholendra Shumsher Rana from his home at 3am on Sunday, September 27.

Sasmit Pokharel, the Education Minister and government spokesperson, told reporters on Tuesday, September 29, that "it is already clear that he was neither arrested nor taken into custody," according to HimalPress. Pokharel told Ratopati that Rana "was not arrested, he was rescued." He said Rana's family had reported a security threat sent by text message and had themselves asked police for extra protection, Radio Nepal Online reported.

That is the third label for the same night. Police first called it an arrest. Hours later they said Rana had been brought in over a security concern. Family members told the Kathmandu Post officers mentioned a threat linked to Gen Z activists, but The Statesman reported the family said no warrant was ever shown. Rana was released to relatives by Sunday afternoon, after being held about 10 hours. The Supreme Court's full court, a meeting of all sitting justices, later objected to Rana being held for about 10 hours, OnlineKhabar reported.

Rana once headed Nepal's top court. Yet the official account of one night at his home changed three times in three days.

The dispute has now pulled in the sitting Chief Justice, Manoj Kumar Sharma. A day after the full court met on Monday, September 28, Sharma met Dan Bahadur Karki, the Inspector General of Police, Nepal's police chief, one on one at the Supreme Court on Tuesday afternoon, OnlineKhabar reported. Neither side has disclosed what they discussed.

That meeting followed a tenser one. In a nearly two hour full court meeting on Monday, September 28, judges questioned Sharma directly about his relationship with Rana and said conditions inside the judiciary had worsened since he took charge, Setopati and OnlineKhabar reported.

What the coverage missed

One public record links the two men. On September 9, a Constitutional Bench, a special panel that hears disputes over constitutional questions, led by Sharma dismissed writs challenging Rana's suspension and ruled his four year old impeachment motion had "lost its purpose," clearing the way for his pension, The Statesman and Nepalnews reported.

Accounts differ on who threatened Rana. Police and his family told the Kathmandu Post the threat involved Gen Z activists. Ratopati quoted Pokharel saying the threat instead came from an unnamed group unconnected to Gen Z. No agency has named the group or described the actual threat.

What we still do not know

Whether police sought or obtained a warrant before entering Rana's home, a question only the Kathmandu Valley Crime Investigation Office or the Home Ministry can answer.
What specific rulings or appointments judges meant when they reportedly accused the courts of becoming a "superstore" under Sharma, per OnlineKhabar, a claim only the judges who raised it or Judicial Council records can substantiate.
What Sharma and Karki discussed on Tuesday, a question only their own offices can answer.

Sources: HimalPress, Ratopati, Radio Nepal Online, Kathmandu Post, The Statesman, OnlineKhabar, Setopati, Nepalnews, The Rising Nepal

Nepali runner Mukesh Pal breaks 22-year 5000m record at Asian Games

Wed, 30 Sep 2026 00:54:38 +0000

Illustration: AI generated with gpt-image-1. Made for Nepal Wire. Not a photograph.

Mukesh Bahadur Pal, a Nepali distance runner, ran the men's 5000m in 14 minutes 03.61 seconds at the 20th Asian Games in Japan. That is a new national record. Ratopati reported it at 12:46 am on Wednesday, September 30, Nepal time. Setopati and DC Nepal also reported the mark.

The run broke a record that had stood for 22 years. Rajendra Bahadur Bhandari, the previous record holder, ran 14:04.89 at the 2004 Athens Olympics. Pal beat that mark by 1.28 seconds, DC Nepal reported.

For Nepali sport fans, the timing matters. Setopati reported that Nepal's other campaigns at these Games, including cricket, ended in losses this week. Pal's record is the rare bright spot in a hard week for Team Nepal in Japan.

The Asian Games is a continental multi-sport event held every four years. This is the 20th edition, hosted in Japan, and athletics events run alongside dozens of other sports.

What the coverage missed

None of the three Nepali reports mention that Bhandari's own 14:04.89 mark was not actually the fastest 5000m a Nepali had ever run. A faster 14:01.19 run at the 2006 South Asian Games in Colombo, The Himalayan Times reported, is not the record Nepali outlets cite today. DC Nepal named the 2004 Athens time as the record Pal broke. Nepal Wire could not confirm how the Nepal Athletics Association's own record book lists it.

The three reports also leave out how this record fits into Nepal's wider standing in the sport. Before these Games, Nepal had never won an athletics medal at the Asian Games, OnlineKhabar English News reported, despite competing in the sport since the first Games in 1951.

None of the outlets measure how big a jump this run was for Pal himself. World Athletics, the sport's global governing body, lists a 14:19.65 run, labelled his 2025 season best, in Gumi, South Korea, on May 30, 2025. His Asian Games run was close to 16 seconds faster than that time, a far bigger leap than the 1.28 seconds it took to move past Bhandari's old mark.

What we still do not know

Where Pal finished in the 5000m field. Ratopati, Setopati and DC Nepal all give his time but not his rank. The Asian Games organizing committee or the Nepal Olympic Committee delegation in Japan could confirm this.
Whether the Nepal Athletics Association, the sport's governing body in Nepal, formally treats Bhandari's 2004 time as the last official 5000m record, given the faster 2006 run that Nepali outlets do not cite today. The association's own record books would settle this.
Whether Pal, who told OnlineKhabar before the Games he wanted to break Nepal's 33 year old 1500m record, also raced that event in Japan, and with what result. Pal himself or the Nepal Athletics Association could answer.

Sources: Ratopati, Setopati, DC Nepal, The Himalayan Times, OnlineKhabar English News, World Athletics athlete profile

Nepal flood toll rises to 35, Myagdi recommended for crisis status

Wed, 30 Sep 2026 00:54:38 +0000

File photo: “Kali Gandaki Valley, Rock formation, Nepal” by Vyacheslav Argenberg via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 4.0)

Thirty five people are now confirmed dead and 15 injured in the floods and landslides that have hit Nepal since Thursday, September 24, Nagarik News and Nepalnews.com reported on Tuesday, September 29. A Central Police News Desk breakdown reported by Asianet Newsable shows 12 deaths in Baglung, seven in Myagdi, five in Palpa, four in Manang, and one each in Dhanusha, Makwanpur, Dhading, Kavre, Rolpa, Dolpa and Rukum West.

If you travel the Kaligandaki corridor, or have family along it, this is not over. The road has stayed blocked for six days straight, The Rising Nepal reported on Tuesday. Bed Bahadur Thapa, chairperson of Kaligandaki Rural Municipality, told Nagarik News that dozers and excavators started clearing the landslide only once the rain eased on Monday.

Myagdi's district disaster management committee met on Tuesday and recommended the district be declared "disaster crisis-affected," Ratopati reported. That is a recommendation, not a final order. It still needs approval higher up before any extra relief money or rules kick in.

The damage stretches wider. In Palpa, four straight days of rain wrecked roads on the main highway and rural routes, and floodwater on the Kaligandaki River damaged both a permanent bridge and a suspension bridge, DC Nepal reported. In Baglung, the Maldhunga bridge connecting Baglung and Parvat districts has been cut off since Sunday, September 27, after floodwater damaged its foundation, and repair work has only just begun, Ratopati reported. In Manang, tourists remain stranded after Sunday's rain blocked the Marsyangdi River in lower Manang and dropped snow on upper Manang, Ratopati reported.

An earlier count from the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Authority, NDRRMA, Nepal's disaster response agency, had put the toll at 21 dead, five missing and five injured for the September 24 to 27 window, an NDRRMA spokesperson told Republica. That figure predates the police desk's later, higher count, and neither agency has explained the gap between them.

What the coverage missed

The Rs 21 billion insurance figure in this week's news is not money for this disaster. It is the outstanding claims pool from a separate, far larger flood that hit the Bhotekoshi-Trishuli river corridor in Rasuwa on August 26, more than a month earlier, Republica reported. That flood killed more than 1,453 people and left more than 5,000 missing, according to a rapid damage assessment by NDRRMA and the National Planning Commission cited by Republica. That count is provisional and has risen over past weeks.

The claims totals reported by different outlets do not match. On September 1, insurers had received NPR 25.87 billion in preliminary claims from 583 policyholders, with just eight policies at Oriental Insurance seeking NPR 13.04 billion, more than half the pool, BeemaPost reported. A small number of large corporate and hydropower policies, not individual households, account for most of that pool, BeemaPost reported. By September 29, the total stood lower, at Rs 20.98 billion, even as the number of policyholders filing claims had nearly quadrupled to 2,180, Republica reported. BeemaPost has separately reported problems in early claims data and published a lower, cross-checked figure. No insurer or regulator has said how much of the gap that explains.

What we still do not know

Which single agency, NDRRMA or Nepal Police, keeps the authoritative national toll for the September 24 disaster, and why their counts diverge.
Whether Myagdi's crisis-affected recommendation needs provincial or federal Cabinet sign-off, and what relief it would actually unlock, a question for the Ministry of Home Affairs or Myagdi's Chief District Officer.
How much of the gap between the early NPR 25.87 billion total and the Rs 20.98 billion total reflects data corrections, a question for the Nepal Insurance Authority or insurers such as Oriental Insurance.
How many of the 2,180 Rasuwa claimants have actually received the 50 percent advance payment the insurance regulator ordered, a question for the same regulator.

Sources: Nagarik News, Nepalnews.com, Asianet Newsable, Ratopati, Ratopati, Ratopati, DC Nepal, Nagarik News, The Rising Nepal, Republica, Republica, Republica, BeemaPost, BeemaPost

Nepal flood toll hits 27, but the Rs 74 billion power damage figure is from August

Tue, 29 Sep 2026 00:11:13 +0000

File photo: “A dam on the Bhote Koshi River, located in Sindhupalchok District, Nepal.” by Saddam19 via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)

Twenty seven people have died and 1,065 families have been hit by floods, landslides, inundation, windstorms and lightning since heavy rain began on Thursday, September 24, the government told Nepal Press. Seven people are injured and four remain missing. The toll comes from 513 separate monsoon incidents recorded across the country in four days.

The Nepal Electricity Authority, or NEA, the state utility that runs Nepal's grid, said the August 26 Bhote Koshi flood cut 430 megawatts of hydropower generation, Republica reported. NEA has not said how much generation the rain since September 24 has cut. To keep supply steady through the dry winter months, the NEA now plans to import up to 1,154 megawatts of electricity from India between January and May, its managing director Dirghayu Kumar Shrestha told OnlineKhabar English. The plan means households again depend on Indian electricity when Nepali rivers run lowest.

Damage kept surfacing through the weekend. In Baglung, floodwater tore through the main pipeline near Hanumanmaowa in Baglung Municipality-3, cutting water to roughly 4,500 users in the bazaar since Sunday, September 27, Ratopati reported. In Mustang, floods and river cutting damaged 46 sections of the Beni-Jomsom-Korla road, a national pride project linking the region to the Korala trade point on the Tibet border. Project chief Tejaswi Sharma told a district disaster meeting on Monday, September 28, that full reopening will take more than a week, Nepal Press reported. In Myagdi, the same four days of rain left about 200 families displaced and cut roads, phone lines and power to rural areas, delaying an exact damage count, the district administration office told OnlineKhabar.

What the Rs 74 billion figure covers

The Rs 74 billion power damage figure is not the cost of this week's rain. Republica's own report on the estimate opens by dating it to "floods triggered by the Bhote Koshi River on August 26", a separate flood that hit a full month before the September 24 rains this story covers. Republica's report ties the Rs 74 billion damage to power infrastructure to that August 26 flood on the Bhote Koshi River. The NEA has not published an updated damage estimate covering the newer flooding, and neither the authority nor the government said today what additional cost that flooding has added.

A second mismatch runs through today's reporting. The National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Authority, or NDRRMA, the federal body that coordinates disaster response, counted 21 deaths in 272 incidents in the 24 hours before Republica's report on Monday, September 28, Republica reported. That is a rolling one day count. Nepal Press's 27 dead figure covers four days, since September 24. The two numbers are not additive, but neither agency said how many of the 21 daily deaths already sit inside the 27 four day total.

Relief is also uneven so far. Gandaki province, which includes Baglung and Myagdi, has approved Rs 100,000, about USD 715, for each family of someone killed in the floods, plus Rs 25,000 for funeral costs, Ratopati reported. Neighbouring Lumbini province recorded 78 disaster incidents, six deaths and 1,280 displaced people over the same four days, Nepal Press reported. No matching relief announcement for Lumbini families had been reported as of today.

What we still do not know

Whether the NEA will issue a combined damage estimate that includes the September flooding, not just the August 26 Bhote Koshi flood, a question for the NEA and the Ministry of Energy.

Whether Baglung and Myagdi families who lost someone have actually received Gandaki's promised Rs 100,000, a question for the province's Ministry of Internal Affairs and the two district administration offices.

Whether Lumbini and other affected provinces will announce relief to match Gandaki's, a question for their provincial governments.

Whether the Beni-Jomsom-Korla road reopens on schedule within the week the project chief estimated, a question for the Department of Roads.

Sources: Nepal Press, Republica, Republica, OnlineKhabar English, Ratopati, Nepal Press, OnlineKhabar, Ratopati, Nepal Press

Rain, Not Sri Lanka, Knocks Nepal Out of Asian Games Cricket

Tue, 29 Sep 2026 00:11:13 +0000

File photo: “Nepali National Cricket team” by Krish Dulal via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0)

Nepal is out of the Asian Games cricket tournament in Japan. Rain washed out the men's quarterfinal against Sri Lanka on Monday, September 28, at Korogi Sports Park in Nisshin, and Nepal was eliminated without bowling a single ball, Nepal Khabar and Hamro Patro reported. Sri Lanka advances to the semifinal on ICC T20I ranking, both outlets said.

For a Nepali cricket fan, that is the whole story in one line. Nepal topped Group A unbeaten. The team walked into the quarterfinal in form. None of it mattered once the rain came, because the tournament runs on a rule that has nothing to do with runs or wickets.

Ratopati reported the match was set for 5:45am Nepal time at Korogi Sports Park, after Nepal finished as winners of Group A in the 20th Asian Games. The Kathmandu Post had reported before the match that the knockout stage carries no reserve day, so a total washout hands the win to the higher-ranked side, in this case Sri Lanka. Nepal's own head coach Stuart Law told the paper "You can't control the weather," and said conditions were not looking good for Nepal going into the game.

This was not the first time weather had decided a Nepal fixture this week. The Kathmandu Post reported that Nepal's final group match against Japan was also abandoned because of rain, though Nepal still advanced as group winner on points from earlier games.

What the coverage missed

Nepal's exit fits a pattern the pre-match previews did not connect to Nepal's own fate. Sankalpa Khabar reported that two other quarterfinals this week had already been washed out, sending India and Pakistan through to the semifinal without playing a ball, on ICC ranking. Wikipedia's tournament page, accessed September 29, also records that no play was possible in Pakistan against Hong Kong and that Pakistan went through as the higher seeded team. Add Nepal's washout and rain and ranking, not cricket, decided three of this week's quarterfinals.

Ranking has settled a Games final before. Yahoo Sports reported that India's only previous men's cricket gold at the Games, at Hangzhou in 2023, also came down to the no reserve day rule. Afghanistan had batted and reached 112 for 5 in 18.2 overs when rain ended the final with no result, ESPNcricinfo's scorecard shows. India, who had not batted, won gold as the side ranked higher.

The format works against Nepal twice over, not once. ESPNcricinfo's match preview noted that three of the last four games in this tournament had already ended without a toss. Wikipedia's tournament page also shows the top four ICC-ranked teams received automatic byes straight into the quarterfinals, skipping the group stage. Nepal, ranked lower, had to win through a three-team preliminary group first, then went out on the same ranking rule that had already carried India and Pakistan through.

Nepal and Sri Lanka have lost a scheduled match to rain before. ESPNcricinfo reported that the two sides' last meeting, at the 2024 T20 World Cup, "was washed out without even the toss." Monday's result is the second time in two years these two teams have failed to play a scheduled game against each other.

What we still do not know

No outlet has reported whether the Cricket Association of Nepal, the Asian Cricket Council or the Olympic Council of Asia will review the no reserve day rule after it decided Nepal's exit and two other quarterfinals in the same week.

Whether coach Stuart Law or the Cricket Association of Nepal lodged any formal protest with tournament organisers, beyond his comments to reporters, has not been reported.

Sources: Nepal Khabar, Hamro Patro, Sankalpa Khabar, Ratopati, The Kathmandu Post, The Kathmandu Post, Wikipedia, Yahoo Sports, ESPNcricinfo, ESPNcricinfo

Supreme Court calls police action against former Chief Justice Rana unacceptable

Tue, 29 Sep 2026 00:11:13 +0000

File photo: “Supreme Court of Nepal 02” by Sandeep Raut via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)

Nepal's Supreme Court held an emergency plenary session on Monday, September 28, and declared that police action against a citizen, even a former chief justice, without completing legal process is unacceptable in a democracy. Spokesperson and co-registrar Arjun Prasad Koirala said the judiciary must stay free of outside pressure and warned against acts that improperly influence pending or coming cases, Nepal Press reported.

That statement is the sharpest institutional rebuke yet in a case that has unsettled Nepal's legal establishment since early Sunday, September 27, when police took former Chief Justice Cholendra Shamsher Rana from his home in Maharajgunj. Rana became chief justice in January 2019. He was suspended in February 2022 after lawmakers filed an impeachment motion against him. The Supreme Court dismissed that motion as moot on September 9, 2026, the Kathmandu Post reported.

It matters beyond one powerful man. The court's statement covered police action against any citizen, not only a former chief justice, Nepal Press reported. If the country's top court says a former chief justice was denied due legal process, the same question hangs over how police can treat any citizen picked up at night.

Officers reached Rana's residence around 12:30 am, and he initially refused to go with them, OnlineKhabar reported. Armed Police Force guards posted at the house first stopped the officers at the gate, the Kathmandu Post reported. Police spent about ninety minutes persuading him before taking him to the Kathmandu Valley Crime Investigation Office in Teku. Police first called it an arrest. Hours later, Senior Superintendent Santosh Khadka gave a different account, saying Rana was brought in only because of a security threat. "After learning that there was a security threat to him, we brought him to our office at night because something could happen," Khadka told OnlineKhabar. No arrest warrant was produced, and no charge has been disclosed, the Kathmandu Post reported. Spotlight Nepal reported that police cited a complaint lodged with the Crime Investigation Office. Nepal Wire could not confirm that any complaint was registered. The Supreme Court's statement puts the detention at about 10 hours. OnlineKhabar's reporting puts it closer to 12. Rana was handed back to his family on Sunday afternoon.

The Judges' Society Nepal separately said Rana was not treated fairly even though state security personnel were already posted at his residence, Nagarik News reported. The Nepal Bar Association also objected to the police action and warned against arbitrary action, myRepublica reported.

What the coverage missed

Two developments from the same day drew far less attention than the court's statement.

Police blocked a three member National Human Rights Commission team, led by commissioner Manoj Duwadi, from meeting Rana at Teku, keeping it waiting 45 minutes at the gate before it left without seeing him, OnlineKhabar reported. NHRC spokesperson Tikaram Pokharel called the conduct a violation of the commission's constitutional rights and demanded action against the officers involved. The commission has since summoned Khadka for questioning, the Kathmandu Post reported.

Rastriya Swatantra Party, the ruling party whose police carried out the detention, said nothing about it on the floor of Parliament on Monday. Neither did the main opposition, Nepali Congress, even though its spokesperson Devraj Chalise had already issued a written objection calling the government's explanations contradictory, Ratopati reported. Other opposition MPs, from CPN-UML and smaller opposition parties, did challenge the government in the House, calling the police action "state terror," Ratopati reported.

What we still do not know

What law, if any, was used to hold Rana, or whether a case was registered against him. Nepal Police headquarters or the Home Ministry could answer this.
Why the security threat that justified taking Rana from his home at midnight had disappeared within hours, with no charge and no continued protection. Only Nepal Police can answer this.
Why the National Human Rights Commission's team was denied access to Rana at Teku. Khadka, now summoned by the NHRC, could answer this.
Why the ruling Rastriya Swatantra Party has issued no formal position on a detention carried out by its own government's police. Only RSP's central leadership can answer this.

Sources: Nepal Press, Nagarik News, DC Nepal, Annapurna Post, Kathmandu Post, OnlineKhabar English, OnlineKhabar English, Kathmandu Post, OnlineKhabar English, Ratopati English, Ratopati English, myRepublica, Kathmandu Post, Kathmandu Post, Spotlight Nepal

Ex-Chief Justice Rana held 12 hours, then police said it was never an arrest

Mon, 28 Sep 2026 14:33:00 +0000

File photo: “Supreme Court of Nepal 03” by Sandeep Raut via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)

Police took former Chief Justice Cholendra Shumsher Rana from his Maharajgunj home shortly after midnight on Sunday, September 27, and held him for about 12 hours, the Kathmandu Post reported. Then they said it had never been an arrest, the Statesman reported. A day later, the government still has not said who ordered it or why, OnlineKhabar reported.

A team from the Kathmandu Valley Crime Investigation Office carried out the operation, the Kathmandu Post reported. Officers brought him to the Teku police office around 2am and held his mobile phone for nearly 12 hours, Ratopati reported. He was released to his family, the Kathmandu Post reported.

Police first confirmed an arrest. Hours later they reversed course, saying Rana had not been arrested at all but taken to a safe place, the Statesman reported. Officers cited a security threat linked to Gen Z unrest without naming its source, the Statesman reported. Rana's family said no warrant was ever shown, the Statesman reported. Nepal Bar Association president Bijay Prasad Mishra said "the government must clearly answer on what basis and for what reason this step was taken," OnlineKhabar reported.

Rana led the Supreme Court until 2022, when lawmakers filed an impeachment motion against him, the Statesman noted. No court warrant or criminal charge has been disclosed in this case, OnlineKhabar reported. On Monday he asked police for extra security, saying in a written request that he had "felt increasingly unsafe because of the responsibilities I previously held in state institutions," the Kathmandu Post reported.

For a reader in Nepal or in the diaspora, the stakes go beyond one man's night in custody. If a former head of the country's judiciary can be taken from his home with no warrant shown and no charge disclosed, the protection that ordinary citizens assume the law gives them looks thinner too.

The reaction crossed party lines. The Nepal Bar Association said detaining and releasing citizens "without sufficient grounds or reasons violates the Constitution and the rule of law," Republica reported. Pushpa Kamal Dahal, coordinator of the NCP, the Nepali Communist Party, said the security threat was "merely an excuse" and that real danger would call for more security, not detention, Republica reported. Gyanendra Shahi, parliamentary leader of the RPP, the Rastriya Prajatantra Party, accused the government of abusing state power for personal revenge, DC Nepal reported. Ain Bahadur Mahar, chief whip of the CPN-UML, the Communist Party of Nepal, Unified Marxist Leninist, told Parliament "the government is presenting itself as the state while violating the law and the rule of law," the Kathmandu Post reported.

What the coverage missed

The Kathmandu Post reported on September 27 that the chain of authority behind the operation remains unexplained.

Officials turned away a monitoring team from the National Human Rights Commission, the Kathmandu Post said in a September 28 editorial.

The same editorial placed the Rana detention in a pattern. It cited the interrogation of government secretary Krishna Hari Pushkar over a text message on June 4 and the detention of three youth activists at a Kirtipur holding centre on July 11, the Kathmandu Post said.

What we still do not know

Who inside the government or police ordered the detention, and under what legal authority. Nepal Police and the Home Ministry could answer.

Whether any written detention order or charge was ever filed against Rana. Police at Teku and Rana's lawyers could answer.

What the "Gen Z" security threat actually was, and whether it produced any separate investigation. Nepal Police and the Home Ministry could answer.

Why officials turned the NHRC team away, and who gave that instruction. Nepal Police and the NHRC could answer.

Whether any Home Ministry or Cabinet spokesperson has responded to the Bar Association's statement beyond police relabelling the detention. The Home Ministry could answer.

Sources: Ratopati, myRepublica, myRepublica, The Statesman, Kathmandu Post, Kathmandu Post, Kathmandu Post, Kathmandu Post, OnlineKhabar English, OnlineKhabar English, DC Nepal, DC Nepal

Former Chief Justice Cholendra Rana Arrested From Kathmandu Home, Complaint Undisclosed

Sun, 27 Sep 2026 01:20:19 +0000

File photo: “Supreme Court of Nepal 01” by Sandeep Raut via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)

Police arrested former Chief Justice Cholendra Shumsher Rana from his home in Maharajgunj overnight into Sunday, according to the Kathmandu Post, Ratopati, OnlineKhabar, Nagarik and several other outlets. Nepali outlets including Ratopati, OnlineKhabar and Nagarik refer to him as Cholendra Shumsher Jabra. A team from the Kathmandu Valley Crime Investigation Office in Teku carried out the arrest, a senior police source told multiple outlets.

Police have not said what the complaint against Rana alleges. DC Nepal and Khabarhub both reported that officers gave no details of the case that triggered the arrest. Desh Sanchar and Nepal Press carried the same line. Ratopati and Desh Sanchar reported that a complaint was filed at the Valley Crime Investigation Office, but its contents remain undisclosed.

His nearly four year term as Chief Justice ended in a public storm over corruption allegations that Parliament never resolved. Now the courts he once led will decide whether police can keep holding him.

A term that ended in crisis

Rana was sworn in as Chief Justice in early January 2019, succeeding Om Prakash Mishra, according to the Kathmandu Post. His term became engulfed in controversy from October 2021, when fellow Supreme Court justices and the Nepal Bar Association accused him of seeking political favors and interfering in judicial appointments, the Kathmandu Post reported.

On February 13, 2022, 98 lawmakers from the ruling coalition registered an impeachment motion against him in Parliament, citing 21 separate allegations of misconduct and corruption, the Kathmandu Post reported at the time. The motion automatically suspended him from office. Parliament never voted on it before the House term expired later that year. Rana retired in December 2022 with the case still unresolved.

The impeachment sat in legal limbo for more than four years. On September 9 this year, the Supreme Court's Constitutional Bench ruled that the motion had lost its purpose and dismissed a related petition, the Kathmandu Post reported. That decision closed the impeachment saga just over two weeks before Sunday's arrest. No outlet has reported any connection between that ruling and the arrest.

What happens next

No charge sheet has been made public. None of the reports cited here mention his release. No outlet has reported him appearing before a court or facing a formal charge. Article 20 of the Constitution of Nepal requires that anyone arrested be brought before a judge within 24 hours, not counting travel time, so the next test comes fast. By Monday, police must bring him before a judge or let him go.

Until they do, every detail of the arrest itself rests on the same unnamed police sources cited by Ratopati, OnlineKhabar, Nagarik, DC Nepal, Nepal Press and Khabarhub. None of the reports say whether the new complaint is linked to the corruption allegations that shadowed his tenure, or to something else entirely. Readers should treat any link between the 2022 impeachment claims and this new complaint as unconfirmed until police or a court record says otherwise.

Sources: Kathmandu Post, Ratopati, OnlineKhabar, Nagarik News, DC Nepal, Nepal Press, Khabarhub (English), Desh Sanchar (English), Kathmandu Post, Constitution of Nepal 2015, Article 20(3)

Nepali Army calls its Bhotekoshi flood rescue 'incomparable, historic and exemplary'

Sun, 27 Sep 2026 01:20:19 +0000

Illustration: AI generated with gpt-image-1. Made for Nepal Wire. Not a photograph.

The Nepali Army has ruled its own performance in the Rasuwa Bhotekoshi flood disaster "incomparable, historic, and exemplary." The verdict appears in a report the army released on September 27, one month after the August 26 flood buried roads, bridges, and hydropower tunnels along the Bhotekoshi and Trishuli rivers.

The report singles out one chapter as the hardest of the whole response: pulling survivors out of hydropower tunnels choked with mud and boulders. The army says seven people came out alive from those buried tunnels, including two rescued on September 5 after crews cut through the tunnel's arched crown to reach them. DC Nepal, OnlineKhabar and Ratopati carried the report on September 27, and Ratopati's English edition confirms the same figures and language.

The army lists the conditions its teams worked under: weather that shifted fast and without warning, narrow mountain flight corridors, too few helipads, communication lines cut, a river whose flow no one could predict, landslides that kept falling, and tunnels packed with debris. A video described by the Kathmandu Post showed one soldier pulling a trapped worker through thick mud inside a tunnel while another pushed him from behind.

A rescue measured against a heavy toll

The army's self-praise sits inside a much larger and grimmer count. By August 30, four days into the disaster, the army said it had rescued 2,697 people, 2,497 of them by helicopter including 216 foreign nationals, and the rest on foot. More than 8,300 soldiers were deployed, the army told the Kathmandu Post.

By September 26, Nepal's disaster authority, the NDRRMA, put the toll far higher across the whole flood, not just the tunnels: 1,453 dead and 5,285 still missing, according to Nepal Press. The same report says 13,795 people have been rescued overall, with more than 20,000 police, army, and armed police personnel mobilized. Energy Minister Biraj Bhakta Shrestha told Parliament on September 23 that more than 800 hydropower workers alone remained unaccounted for, a figure that has come down only slowly since it topped 900 in early September, the Kathmandu Post reported. OnlineKhabar reports the army's figure of 2,798 people rescued from the hydropower area overall. The seven are those freed from tunnels later packed with mud and boulders. Seven people pulled alive from buried tunnels is a real achievement. It is also a small number next to the more than 800 hydropower workers the minister says are still unaccounted for.

Recovery still slow, a month on

Nepal Press's own reporting on the one month mark shows why "historic" success sits uneasily next to daily hardship. Road links to Rasuwa remain broken. The army has built a temporary bridge at Devighat in Nuwakot, and the roughly ten kilometre Bidur to Betrawati stretch has reopened for the most part, but the route from Devighat to Parika village still needs a tuin, a cable pulley crossing, because no bridge stands there yet. A 72 metre bailey bridge is being prepared for Betrawati. Nagarik News reported on September 26 that the collapse of Rasuwa's road network has caused food shortages and made it hard for poorer residents to reach medical treatment.

Efforts to reopen the Rasuwagadhi trade route to China before the Dashain festival are underway, led by the Department of Roads, the army, and a government task force, Ratopati reported. Until that route reopens and permanent bridges replace bailey crossings, families displaced by the flood will keep depending on temporary shelter, rented rooms, and relief deliveries that Nepal Press says are still ongoing a month after the water hit.

Sources: Ratopati (English), OnlineKhabar, DC Nepal, Ratopati (Nepali), Ratopati (English), The Kathmandu Post, The Kathmandu Post, The Kathmandu Post, The Kathmandu Post, Nepal Press, Nagarik News

Floods and landslides kill six in Nepal, 407 rescued as rivers breach danger levels

Sun, 27 Sep 2026 01:20:19 +0000

File photo: “तिनाउ नदी” by Saroj Pandey via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0)

Six people have died and 407 have been rescued since Asoj 8, which fell on September 24, as floods and landslides triggered by days of relentless monsoon rain swept across Nepal, central police spokesperson Avinarayan Kafle said, according to Nepal Press and DC Nepal. Two deaths each were recorded in Bagmati and Lumbini provinces, and one each in Gandaki and Karnali, Kafle said. Two people were injured and are being treated at local hospitals.

The rain has pushed several major rivers past or near their danger marks. The Narayani crossed its danger level at Devghat early Sunday, prompting the Flood Forecasting Section to urge high alert until evening, Nagarik News reported. In Butwal, the Tinau river also crossed the danger level, and floodwaters swept away five houses overnight, Nepal Press reported. In Makwanpur, the Lal Bakaiya river neared its danger level near Jurelibazar, with the same forecasting section again asking residents in flood-prone areas to stay alert, Ratopati reported. Along the Saptakoshi in Barahakshetra, fluctuating water levels have left riverside residents fearful, The Rising Nepal reported.

Saptari district reports the most flooded homes so far. More than 500 homes, 483 in Hanumannagar Kankalini municipality and 17 in Tilathi Koiladi rural municipality, were flooded, affecting more than 2,000 families, OnlineKhabar reported. In Myagdi, a landslide damaged 19 houses and cut power in rural areas as the Myagdi, Rahughat and Kaligandaki rivers rose, OnlineKhabar reported, citing the district administration office. In Nawalpur, the eastern Nawalparasi district, the Kaligandaki river washed away the approach road to a motorable bridge linking the district and Tanahun, severing the Gandaki provincial highway, DC Nepal reported, citing police official Anil Pandit.

Roads cut in several provinces

The rain has paralyzed road transport in multiple provinces, the Department of Roads told Republica. In Kapilvastu, a landslide near Viral Danda blocked the East-West Highway on Saturday night, Nepal Press reported, citing district police. In Baglung, two national highways and dozens of rural roads were blocked, cutting off the district headquarters, OnlineKhabar reported. Rasuwa's road network remains fully cut after earlier Bhotekoshi flood damage, compounding food and medical supply problems there, Nagarik News reported.

Tourism is feeling it too. A restaurant operator on the Maurice Herzog trail in Myagdi told Ratopati that business has dropped as rain and landslides keep trekkers away.

More rain forecast, east to improve

The Department of Hydrology and Meteorology has forecast continued heavy rain through Sunday in Gandaki, Lumbini, Karnali and Sudurpaschim provinces, driven by a low pressure system moving in from Uttar Pradesh, DC Nepal reported. Eastern Nepal, including Koshi province, Madhes and Kathmandu Valley, should see significant improvement as the system weakens and exits, OnlineKhabar reported.

In Karnali, Humla district recorded 114.8 millimeters of rain in 24 hours at Simikot between Friday and Saturday, the heaviest rainfall recorded there since 1978, said Dr Indira Kandel, chief of the Meteorological and Climatology Office in Surkhet, according to Nepal Press and Nagarik News. Authorities have not yet said whether the toll or the number of blocked roads will rise as forecasters warn the western half of the country is not yet clear of the system.

Sources: Nepal Press, DC Nepal, DC Nepal, DC Nepal, OnlineKhabar, OnlineKhabar, OnlineKhabar, OnlineKhabar, Ratopati, Ratopati, Nagarik News, Nagarik News, Nagarik News, The Rising Nepal, Republica, Nepal Press, Nepal Press, Nepal Press

One Month After Bhotekoshi Floods, 1,453 Dead, Survivors Leave Camps

Sat, 26 Sep 2026 18:26:54 +0000

File photo: “Larcha Bridge on Bhotekoshi River, Sindhupalchok District, Nepal” by Saddam19 via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)

One month after floods tore through the Bhotekoshi and Trishuli valleys, Nepal's disaster authority counts 1,453 dead and 5,285 missing. Nepal Press and Tribune India both cited those figures from the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Authority on September 26.

Some roads and bridges are back. Nepal Press reports crews have temporarily reconnected key stretches washed out by the water. But the outlet is blunt about what that does not mean. Full reconstruction remains far off. Relief distribution, temporary housing and rental support for displaced families are still being organized, a month after the disaster hit.

On the ground, the picture is thinner than the reconnected roads suggest. OnlineKhabar reports that holding centres set up for displaced families are emptying out. Survivors interviewed by the outlet say they received little beyond basic relief items, food and daily supplies from government and non government sources. With nothing more coming, many have left the centres and moved in with relatives instead.

A home built over four decades, gone in a day

OnlineKhabar's reporting on one family captures the scale of individual loss behind the numbers. Ishwar Basnet flew home from Portugal, leaving his six-week-old baby behind, to search for his parents. He looked for eight days. He never found their bodies. The family home, built up over 35 to 40 years, was also swept away. Basnet told OnlineKhabar he now has no house and no village to return to, only memories.

The missing count carries its own dispute. NDRRMA's 5,285 figure, reported by Nepal Press and Tribune India, is not the only number in circulation. ABC News Australia reported on September 26 that over 5,700 people remain missing. Nepal Wire could not independently verify which figure is more current. The gap itself says something. A month after a disaster this large, Nepal still does not have one agreed number for how many people it lost.

The hydropower sector adds another layer. Energy Minister Biraj Bhakta Shrestha told Parliament on September 23 that more than 800 workers from hydropower projects remain unaccounted for, according to the Kathmandu Post. That figure predates the one month mark by three days. Nepal Wire found no public update to it since.

For Nepal Press, the verdict a month on is simple. The wounds are the same. The road to recovery is still long. Nepal Wire found no published government timeline for full reconstruction. Nor did it find any NDRRMA statement on when the missing count will be final.

Sources: Nepal Press, OnlineKhabar, OnlineKhabar, Tribune India, Kathmandu Post, ABC News Australia