"This is not just about Facebook or TikTok. It is about politicians who rob our taxes, who get rich while young people have no jobs. We are saying enough is enough," 23-year-old law graduate Sadiksha told The Quint, protesting with a group of friends near Kathmandu's bustling Kalanki neighbourhood on Tuesday, 9 September.
Nepal’s capital city was thrown into chaos on Tuesday as thousands of angry young protesters torched and looted parliament, the president’s palace, Singhadurbar, the Supreme Court, political and government offices and broke into the residences of top leaders, plunging the nation into its worst political unrest in years.
By the afternoon, Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli had resigned in the midst of escalating violence that has taken at least 23 lives and injured dozens more in two days of uprisings.
The scale of the destruction shocked a city that had become too used to political chaos. Fire columns raged through downtown Kathmandu as protesters overwhelmed cordons, poured onto the grounds of the federal Parliament building, and set parts of the building on fire. Nepal Police and Armed Police Force (APF) surrendered. Protestors snatched the firearms and vehicles of the security forces.
The protests, widely referred to as a “Gen-Z movement,” erupted last week after the government abruptly banned access to 26 social media platforms, including Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, and X. Officials claimed the shutdown was necessary to ensure foreign platforms registered and paid taxes in Nepal. But critics and activists denounced it as a thinly veiled attempt to muzzle dissent.
Shutting social media, which is a major civic space of the Gen-Z population, was just a turning point for the protests, but the youths were frustrated for a long time due to corruption and incompetence of political leaders.
The decision struck a nerve in a country where millions of young people rely on social media not only for communication, but also for small businesses, education, and activism.
'Politicians Using Our Taxes for...'
"Corruption has increased… many youths do business through social media, but the government couldn’t tolerate their success," one of the protesters who took to the streets on Tuesday told The Quint. Another asked pointedly, “Leaders are using our taxes to travel abroad. People who didn’t have good lifestyles before have changed after joining politics—how?”
The unrest overflowed fast across the nation. Demonstrators attacked and torched the CPN-UML party headquarters, Nepali Congress party headquarters, and ransacked the CPN (Maoist Center) party office. Private residences of the nation’s seniormost leaders—KP Sharma Oli, former prime ministers Sher Bahadur Deuba, and Pushpa Kamal Dahal ‘Prachanda’—were vandalised and set afire.
They also snatched political leaders like former Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba and his wife Dr Arzu Rana. But the Army later rescued them. Many other leaders of Nepali Congress and CPN-UML faced a similar fate.
Till now, there is no information of where the Army has kept the president, prime minister, Cabinet ministers, and other major political leaders.
Bilochan Paudel, 17, a student from Kathmandu, said the Gen-Z generation was forced to come to the streets. “The three major parties keep getting chances. They do nothing, they bring neither good governance nor development. They don’t let others work either," he said. “It has reached a point where ordinary people can't even get basic healthcare. We must protest against misgovernance... only then can the country move forward."
Another protester, 24-year-old Bikram Raut from Pepsicola, Kathmandu, had joined the protest at New Baneshwor early on Tuesday morning. In his view, misgovernance has halted the country’s development. “Corruption and bribery have strangled Nepal. I joined the Gen-Z movement because things have gone too far,” he said.
Kathmandu Paralysed, Airports Shut
The upheaval paralysed the capital. Tribhuvan International Airport, Nepal’s busiest and only major international gateway, was forced to shut, grounding dozens of flights and stranding hundreds of passengers. Roads into Kathmandu were blocked, while armored vehicles of Nepali Army patrolled major intersections under the glare of spotlights.
Issuing a statement in the afternoon, Oli said he was resigning “effective immediately in the interest of peace and stability.” His decision came less than 24 hours after Home Minister Ramesh Lekhak stepped down, saying he bore “moral responsibility” for the deaths of protesters shot by police on Monday.
Authorities ordered an indefinite curfew in Kathmandu and other important cities, but it was tenuous as protesters re-gathered in defiance. Schools and businesses were shut down, hospitals overflowed with wounded.
But the protesters’ mood was defiant. “We are here for our future,” said Abin Shrestha, a 23-year-old student while speaking to The Quint, carrying a national flag in front of the President’s Palace. “We want this country free from corruption so that all people can reach hospitals and education easily.”
Within hours of the social media ban on 4 September, hashtags condemning the move went viral, and students began mobilising on the streets. By 8 September, thousands of mostly young demonstrators had poured into Kathmandu, Pokhara, Biratnagar, Itahari and other towns, demanding the immediate lifting of the ban and sweeping reforms to tackle corruption.
By the time the government rescinded the ban late Monday night, the movement had already taken on a broader anti-corruption character. Many demonstrators, especially first-time protesters, said they had lost faith in the political class. Placards at Tuesday’s march bore slogans like “Down with corruption” and “This country belongs to us, not you.”
Monday’s protests began peacefully, with students demonstrating in school uniforms and chanting slogans. But by the afternoon, clashes broke out in several locations as police blocked their path with tear gas and water cannons. The situation spiraled in the evening when officers opened fire in multiple districts. The bloodshed provoked outrage, and Lekhak’s resignation late on Monday did little to calm tensions.
Calls Grow for Independent Inquiry, Cessation of Violence
Meanwhile, Amnesty International called for an independent investigation and accountability. “Amnesty International strongly condemns the unlawful use of lethal and less-lethal force by law enforcement in Nepal, resulting in deaths and serious injuries of several protesters. Authorities must exercise maximum restraint and ensure that force is used only when absolutely necessary and proportionate. Every possible precaution must be taken to minimize harm,” Nirajan Thapaliya, director of Amnesty International Nepal, said in a statement.
Analysts said that the protests were an outburst of accumulated grievances from Nepal’s youth, who form a majority of the population but are bedeviled by widespread unemployment and political disillusionment. The social media ban, they continued, was a trigger that amplified underlying concerns about corruption, inequality, and a lack of opportunity.
The bloodshed has also triggered concerns of more instability in a nation that has experienced repeated shifts in government since its ten-year civil war ended in 2006. Nepal has rotated through over a dozen prime ministers in barely two decades, and corruption scandals have consistently drained public confidence.
Mayor of Kathmandu Metropolitan City, Balen Shah, who is widely hailed by Nepalis and especially the Gen-Z, has appealed to the protesters to return home. Writing on Facebook on Tuesday afternoon, he urged them to end the demonstrations. “Please, Gen-Z, the country is in your hands. You are the ones who will shape it. But the more damage that happens now, the more it will affect all of us. Please return home,” he wrote.
Shah has been supporting this movement since the beginning. He was an independent candidate during the local election of Nepal in 2022 where he defeated candidates of major political parties with heavy margins.
The protestors say they want Balen to lead the country.
Also, jailed leader of the Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP) Rabi Lamichhane was also taken out of prison by the protestors. The Oli government had jailed him, calling the leader of the fourth-largest party in Parliament as a cooperative scammer. However, he has claimed that he was released from prison only after completing all legal procedures.
Many prisoners from across the country have also fled.
Meanwhile, the youths are having victory parades in the streets of Kathmandu and celebrating the "success" of the movement.
For now, Nepal stands at a dangerous crossroads. The Gen-Z protests have shaken the foundations of its political establishment, brought down a government, and exposed the gulf between a disillusioned generation and a ruling elite accused of betrayal. Whether the crisis leads to genuine reform or yet another cycle of instability may depend on how leaders respond in the days ahead.
(Pratik Ghimire is a journalist based in Kathmandu, Nepal.)