Kathmandu – Streets oppose corruption and nepotism in the context of the recent social media ban triggered by Nepal’s Gen Z triggered. But none of them foresee the violence and unrest.
September 8, 2025 is another week for RC Gautam, an errand boy at Kantipur Television. During his two decades at the station, he has seen several street protests, grim political situations, civil wars, gunfights, violence, and even attacks on the channel headquarters. But September 9 was a little different for him.
He told me over the phone: “I can’t even start telling you how many people rushed into our station.”
An angry mob stormed into the Cantilpole TV building on Tuesday, burning three buildings on its house, burning twenty bicycles and twelve cars. The station is just one of hundreds of buildings and houses in Nepal after what is known as the “Generation Z” protest, which quickly lost control on September 8.
In the recent social media ban, demonstrators have been on the streets against corruption and nepotism. Every day, about 2,000 Nepalis travel to work in the Gulf, Malaysia and other countries, while the country is based on a remittance economy, with the children of leaders and politicians leading a luxury lifestyle – Gen Z has been criticized on social media.
When protesters took to the streets on Monday, they expected peace. Initially, there was music and dancing, and some local celebrities appeared to support the movement. But things quickly got out of control when some of the older people in the crowd targeted the council.
This started the riot. The Chief District Officer of Kathmandu subsequently issued an order to open fire, killing 22 protesters. The numbers have risen since then. Some of the dead protesters were wearing school uniforms. By September 10, a total of 30 people had died. More than a thousand people were injured during protests in the hospital.
But the numbers about casualties are called conservative estimates. Many remain missing and without blame in similar incidents in different parts of the country.
People are watching the remains and destruction of the charred Supreme Court building in Kathmandu on September 10, 2025. Photo: AFP
hell
On September 9, as groups of arsonists appeared on the streets, violence escalated, destroying and destroying the private residences of ministers and businesses associated with those in power. The entire ministerial dormitory, government buildings, police stations, the Supreme Court and Singha Durbar, the country’s main administrative neighborhood, all caught fire.
On Tuesday, Kathmandu burned and smelled anger. The air is too thick and it makes people choke.
As the smoke began to fill the air in the Budanilkantha area of the northern part of the capital where I live, the Army chopper surrounded the sky above me, and my instinct as a former journalist made me walk out.
Deuba’s residence is the home of former Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba and his wife, former minister Arju Deuba. A smoke rose from their residence and rose toward Mount Shivapur. The chopper conducted several rounds of attempts to make the couple manipulated by the mob, but failed to succeed. Hearing the gunshots, the neighbors said two people died – their deaths, unproven. The injured Deubas was eventually evacuated by the back door.
On the streets where I live, smoke rises towards the sky – the air smells smelly.
When I arrived at the scene, the arsonist had just left and the public could openly access the house of former President Bidhya Bhandari, which was burning. The crowd outside lingers, staring at a strange tone. What I heard:
“What did you accept?”
“I really didn’t help.”
“There are 240,000 Nepali rupees, some people. Some people took it.”
“Someone picked up the mattress.”
“I only ate the cake.”
During my evening walk, passing by Bhandari’s home, I often quickly scan the former president’s house, and the guards will be stationed at the security station, armed. On Tuesday, as the house burned, residents were evacuated, and the guards were still outside the gate, waiting.
They said, “It’s our duty.”
Scenes of bhandari’s home are common in Kathmandu, where arsonists tread nearby, burned and plundered the houses of ministers and managers, beat them up, and deprived them of them.
Kathmann is all hell on September 9, because police banned the fire brigade from relocation for safety reasons. Even if they were mobilized, they never prepared for such a large scale. No one foreseeed the violence and unrest of nature that occurred.
An army officer patrols along a street as smoke rolls in Nepal’s famous retail chain Bhat-bhateni, the day after protesters burned in Kathmandu on September 10, 2025. Photo: AFP: AFP: AFP
Insomnia snippets
Most Nepali have been sleeping poorly since the killing on September 8. Most people are boiling or sad. Or tired and scared. Even though the anger was initially targeting the KP Oli government and the ruling coalition that killed unarmed protesters, emotions were in trouble the next day.
People no longer know who is supporting arsonists, or seemingly targeting specific homes and institutions, as if they are operating on a list, exercise looks like a premeditated attack strategy.
The man on a motorcycle was going door to door, causing arson, leaving behind a trace of victory crying in the battle. Some of them waved guns they stole from the police station that they rushed into. In Maharajgunj Chakrapath, the community where I grew up, a senior policeman was beaten to death by a mob. Some policemen were rescued and airlifted by Army choppers on slings.
This is the station my family and neighbors seek to safely.
When the “Gen Z” who launched the protests first called for calm on social media and to hold themselves accountable for the riots, it caused too much damage. Their appeal is to peacefully protest against corruption. But they no longer control this situation. Their movement was hijacked.
On the evening of September 9, the speech of the head of the Nepal Army was delivered on the evening of September 9, plus the security order – people felt some form of breathing because they knew that if there was no more, at least the rampage would stop. Army trucks patrol the city, but people still spend the night in fear. Unknown groups break into private residences in some places. Others reported the robbery. Prisoners escaped the big set in different parts of the country.
As the chaos progressed, I texted a young journalist friend outside Kathmandu and lived in the capital for work and study. She said she was scared. I told her that I might sleep with scissors under my pillow just in case. There are rumors that some men entered the home and raped women, which later confirmed in the announcement.
Aerial view shows firefighters emitting burns in the main administrative building of the Nepal government on September 10, 2025.
Media during anarchy
My former colleague RC Gautam was able to escape safely in the attack on Cantil TV on Tuesday. But with the Army’s cloak and curfew, he still didn’t return home as I wrote this, but instead lived nearby with acquaintances.
“What will happen next, Didi? “He asked me. How would I educate them? The office where I worked was missing.” I didn’t give RC the answer, but I joined him in mourning the loss of my previous workplace and many other things that were lost to us in two days.
Kantipur TV, the largest private traditional media, is known as an institution that stands on its own foundation. While media houses are also related to their owners and advertisers, they are mostly about the journalists who run them. Especially non-partisans, who dedicate their lives to journalism so that high standards can be maintained. Over the years, Kantipur Media Group has had many journalists like this who have taken a stance when the country and people need it.
During street protests in April 2006, hundreds of people stopped outside the Kantipur complex in Tinkune, applauded and thanked for the good news it did. The people who were working there looked out the window and some of us felt grateful on their faces.
The same institution received another treatment. For many journalists working in Cantilpur, their job is that they are from their homes where they launch papers, raise difficult questions and urge Nepali people to think. The Burning of Kantipur also points to a troubled point in Nepal’s history where dedication to journalism has been insulted. Of course, some press conferences take shortcuts, all traditional media are funded by businesses, but they are also run by journalists who believe in the truth. Free and just journalism is the foundation of democracy, and at the end of a period of trust in independent media, media halls like Cantilpur were removed.
Questions abound
If one thing the movement calls for is restoration of freedom of speech, then knocking down the media is a symbolic contradiction.
This brought me back to the basics. Where does Nepal go from here? There is no Intel right now. Are there any foreign elements to play with? The vested interests of dormant political groups? Who incited the riot? Who should be led next?
By the evening of September 10, Gen Z had spent a whole day discussing and closing their choices for interim leaders. But as the state listens, discord and constitutional obstacles bring their choices. Nepal is now stuck in the question, and although the answers are large, they are not right or wrong.
So far, the country’s former chief justice Sushila Karki claims to have accepted the request of Gen Z protesters to lead the interim government. “When they asked me, I accepted it,” Kalki told India News Channel CNN-NEWS18. Representatives of the “Gen Z” told reporters that they later met with Army officials and proposed Karki as the choice of the Provisional Government leader.
International media and friends want to know what happened. Our DM is full of care and simple curiosity, but people are too tired now. We have seen the house burning, we have seen the sudden and rapid death of loved ones, our colleagues were shot, beaten, and our friends and family were robbed. We also see men waving guns, Kukuris (Traditional sword, also a national weapon of Nepal), threatens the innocent.
Who are these men? Who is mobilizing them? Where did the former minister escape? Where are those who escape safely and hide? Who is sheltered in the Army barracks? What could the army become? Who will the country choose as the new leader? Will the president call for elections? Will the Constitution be amended? Who would comfort the mother who died in the protests? Since the buildings they work for are now gone, what happens to all the unemployed people? Questions abound.
But for now, at this moment, these queries have to take a step back. Because at present, Nepalis need rest, support and strength when all this chaos is over and the air is cleared needs to be restored.
