Nepal's Gen Z protesters brought down a government in under 48 hours – but the victory has come at a heavy price.

"We are proud, but there is also a mixed baggage of trauma, regret and anger," says Tanuja Pandey, one of the protest organisers.

With 72 people killed, last week's protests were the deadliest unrest in the Himalayan country in decades. Official buildings, residences of political leaders and luxury hotels such as the Hilton, which opened in July 2024, were torched, vandalised and looted. The wife of a former prime minister is fighting for her life after their home was set ablaze.

The protests represented "a wholesale rejection of Nepal's current political class for decades of poor governance and exploitation of state resources", said Ashish Pradhan, a senior adviser at the International Crisis Group. But the damage to government services, he added, could "parallel the toll of the 2015 earthquake which took almost 9,000 lives".

The destruction is not only confined to the capital Kathmandu - at least 300 local government offices across the nation have been damaged.

The financial losses could amount to 3 trillion Nepalese rupees ($21.3bn; £15.6bn), nearly half of the country's GDP, according to the Kathmandu Post. Its offices were also attacked by crowds and set on fire.

Two days before the deadly demonstration on 8 September, Ms Pandey, a 24-year-old environmental campaigner, uploaded a video showing a mining site in Chure, one of the most fragile mountain ranges in the region. Nepal's resources should belong to the people, not to "politicians' private limited companies", she wrote, calling on her peers to "march against corruption and the misuse of our nation's wealth".

Like many youth movements in Asia, Nepal's Gen Z protests were leaderless. Others had made similar pleas to Ms Pandey's after the Nepali government decided to ban 26 social media platforms, citing their failure to register locally.

For months, fury had been brewing against "nepo babies", the children of powerful politicians of all stripes, who were accused of flaunting their unexplained wealth on social media.

One of the most viral photos showed Saugat Thapa, the son of a provincial minister, standing next to a Christmas tree made of boxes of luxury brands including Louis Vuitton,........

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