Kathmandu, Sept. 21 -- An internal Nepal Police inventory has revealed that 1,276 rifles and pistols were looted and 98,491 rounds of ammunition are unaccounted for during the recent Gen G protest unrest, raising urgent questions about the use and control of lethal force.

The police document also records a shortfall of 1,315 rubber rounds. Police figures state that, across the two days of unrest, there were 2,220 instances of aerial firing and 3,323 uses of tear-gas canisters.

Given these figures, rights groups and legal observers say an empowered, high-level inquiry is now indispensable to establish how many rounds were actually discharged by security forces and how many were lost in the violence.

Former prime minister KP Sharma Oli h...