KATHMANDU: The situation in Nepal’s capital has descended into alarming chaos. What began as youth-led protests against the blocking of social media platforms has now morphed into lawlessness on the streets of Kathmandu, where looters and anarchic groups have hijacked the movement.
On Tuesday evening, panic gripped the Baneshwor area when employees at the Rastriya Banijya Bank reported an ongoing robbery at their branch.
According to eyewitnesses, the men storming the bank bore little resemblance to young protesters demanding accountability. Instead, they appeared to be opportunists and criminal elements, exploiting the unrest as cover to carry out their crimes.
This disturbing development underscores a grim reality: what started as a political agitation is increasingly being drowned in looting, arson, and vandalism. Many protesters seem to have turned into rioters, and rioters into looters—blurring the lines between political resistance and sheer criminality.
Symbols of the State Under Fire
The capital remains in shock after Monday’s clashes, where heavy-handed police action left nearly 20 dead and triggered outrage nationwide.
The protests quickly spiraled into retaliatory violence, with demonstrators setting ablaze some of the most sacred institutions of Nepal’s democracy—the Parliament building, the Supreme Court, and the historic Singha Durbar.
Fires continued to burn late into Tuesday night, destroying invaluable records, archives, and critical state infrastructure. The deliberate targeting of such national symbols signals not just anger, but a determination to wipe away the old order.
Gen-Z Organizers Lose Control
Ironically, organizers of the Gen-Z protest had repeatedly urged demonstrators to refrain from attacking public property. Yet their appeals fell on deaf ears, as splinter groups carried on with widespread arson and vandalism.
This raises questions about whether the movement still has a coherent command structure—or if it has been hijacked entirely by anarchic forces.
Army Steps In
Amid the escalating turmoil, the Nepali Army announced that troops would be mobilized from 10 PM Tuesday to restore order in the capital and other sensitive zones. Senior military leadership has appealed to Gen-Z leaders to withdraw their agitation and open dialogue before the unrest plunges the country into uncontrollable anarchy.
A Historical Reminder
The chaos unfolding in Nepal carries a stark reminder from history: governments are rarely overthrown neatly or peacefully. Across nations and decades, when ordinary citizens feel betrayed, ignored, or suffocated by political stagnation, revolutions have erupted not with ballots, but with fire and fury.
The current destruction of banks, courts, and parliament reflects a pattern seen in countless uprisings worldwide—where the frustration of the populace manifests in violence against symbols of state power.
The looting of banks and torching of institutions may appear at first as acts of disorder, but they often signal the collapse of public faith in governance itself. Nepal today stands at that very crossroads.
The question that now hangs over Kathmandu is whether this is momentary chaos hijacked by opportunists, or the beginning of a historic transformation where a fed-up people decide they have had enough of the old political order.
