By Our Reporter
September 8, 2025, will be remembered as the darkest day for Nepal. At least 19 were confirmed killed and more than 400 injured on a protest day, the majority of whom were youths. This level of loss is not seen before in Nepal’s recent history. The 1990 uprising against the Panchayat system had 19 fatalities in two months. The 2006 revolution that toppled the monarchy resulted in 23 deaths over 19 days. But in 2025, nearly the same number arrived within hours.
The demonstration on early Monday by youths calling themselves Gen Z hit the streets with clear demands: reopen social media platforms closed by the government and act against deep-seated corruption. For weeks, they had raised the issue online with hashtags- #NepoKids and #NepoBaby against politicians’ children leading a luxurious life‘at the cost of taxpayers’ money.’.
Rather than trying to mitigate the situation, Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli mocked Gen Z youths and labeled their movement immature. These acts enraged, rather than calmed, the situation. When protesters on Monday advanced from the Maitighar Mandal toward parliament, security forces used excessive force. Tear gas, water cannons, and batons came first. Then came live bullets. Witnesses said police fired directly into crowds in Baneshwar and nearby streets. One recalled a boy who fell when rounds were fired. Others recounted indiscriminate firing in alleys where students in school uniforms fled to save themselves. By noon, the government declared curfew in Kathmandu and then in towns like Butwal and Bhairahawa. But the crackdown had already claimed its first victims. Nineteen people were found dead in the capital, two more in Itahari. Hospitals were overflowing with the injured. To control the situation, the government had imposed curfews in all three districts of the Valley for the second day too.
Photos and videos shared online showed police turned the protest areas into battleground more than a protest site. The government’s failure was two-fold. It did not make any proper security arrangements in the protest day. It also did not address the grievances early that had led to the protesters. Home Minister Ramesh Lekhak, who was later forced to resign, accepted he had expected troubles on the protest day but not at this scale. That is no excuse, though. His responsibility was to avoid bloodshed.
Party leaders now term the crackdown as one of the most atrocious in history. Congress leaders compared it even to King Gyanendra’s direct rule, but said such murders had not occurred then. Many in Congress called for the resignation of Lekhak. Some called for Oli himself to resign, while Congress leader Shekhar Koirala urged Congress ministers belonging to his faction to resign en masse. But critics and protesting youths say resignations are not sufficient. They call for setting up commissions to bring accountability to each responsible leaders, ministers, officials and security personne who are behind the Monday’s ‘massacre’.
The outrage among youths is also a result of arrogance at the top. Nepal’s history tells how sacrifice leads to change. Four martyrs overthrew the Rana regime. Nineteen fatalities in 1990 brought an end to three decades of Panchayat rule. Twenty-three martyrs in 2006 brought an end to a monarchy. Now, 19 fatalities can become a turning point. Following the Monday’s chaos, the onus now lies with society to respond. If the murders of 19 youngsters and the suffering of over 400 hurt are muffled, it will reflect badly on society itself.
The government could have opened the channels of dialogue but took recourse to bullets. It could have heard the complaints but it chose to turn a deaf ear to them. For that, Oli, Deuba, Lekhak, and Minister Prithvi Subba Gurung are already guilty in most people’s minds. Also guilty is the police force and Kathmandu Chief District Officer who ordered police to open fire on unarmed youths. History will not forgive leaders who governed with bloodied hands against the young generation. The Gen Z protest has indeed uncovered the dysfunctional system to its foundation. Meanwhile, due to the arrogance and insensitivity on the part of PM and ministers, parliament’s streets were turned into a killing field.
The sacrifice and bravery demonstrated by youths are now etched on Nepal’s history forever. They will be remembered not as the generation that dared to take on corruption and misrule with their lives.
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