The 25 civil society activists, doctors and journalists who defied the curfew on 8 April at the Teaching Hospital and jump-started the current agitation and were arrested have been shifted to a detention centre in Duwakot.

The group includes prominent human rights activists Padma Ratna Tuladhar, Kapil Shrestha and Malla K Sundar, constitutional expert Laxman Aryal, medical doctors Madhu Ghimire and Sundar Mani Dixit, as well as Himalmedia publisher Kanak Mani Dixit.

Police reportedly offered the group to go free after paying a fine but this was refused.

Hundreds of other political activists, professionals and students have been rounded up in the past four days and being kept in police detention throughout the country. This is in addition to prominent politicians like Madhab Kumar Nepal, Ram Chandra Poudel and Narhari Acharya, activists Krishna Pahadi, Mathura Shrestha and Devendra Raj Pandey and editor Shyam Shrestha who have been in detention since February.