Minutes before Nepalese Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli resigned from his office, Gen Z protesters broke into Parliament and set fire to one of the buildings on the premises.
Demonstrators also set fire to Oli’s residence in Bhaktapur’s Balkot area and other senior leaders amid the ongoing protests triggered by a since-revoked social media ban.
Visuals showed thousands of protesters storming the Parliament as plumes of grey and black smoke arose in the area.
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Even as the building was on fire, thousands of protesters continued to march towards the Parliament, shouting slogans and raising flags in the area, visuals showed.
The demonstrators also entered the Singha Durbar premises, breaking into the area through its western gate. They also reportedly set the gate on fire while forcing their way into the central administrative complex of Nepal.
The Gen Z protesters shouted slogans like “KP Chor, Desh Chhod”, “Take Action Against Corrupt Leaders” across Nepal’s capital city of Kathmandu.
The residence of former home minister Ramesh Lekhak at Naikap was also torched just a day after he resigned from the post following the police’s use of force on the young protesters agitating against the ban on 26 social media sites, including Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram and YouTube.
The protests have so far left 19 people dead and more than 300 others injured.
Meanwhile, officials said that Oli resigned from the PM’s post amid mounting pressure in the anti-government protests. His resignation came shortly after hundreds of demonstrators entered his office shouting anti-government slogans.
As protesters moved to vandalise private residences and government buildings, all flights at the Tribhuvan International Airport (TIA) have been cancelled for the day over security concerns, The Kathmandu Post reported. Hansa Raj Pandey, general manager at TIA, however, asserted that the “airport is not closed”.
What is happening in Nepal?
Widespread protests led by youths under the banner of Gen Z broke out in Nepal as the KP Sharma Oli-led government banned WhatsApp, Facebook, X, YouTube and 22 other social media sites in the country.
As the protests grew violent, resulting in the deaths of 19 people, the government late on Monday revoked the ban. However, anti-government protests continued over the lives lost in the agitation across the country. Authorities already reportedly imposed curfew in the key areas of the capital after the deaths in Monday’s protest.
Additionally, the central office of the Nepali Congress in Sanepa was also vandalised on Tuesday afternoon.
India-Nepal border situation
With the violent protest escalating, the India-Nepal border at Panitanki in West Bengal’s Darjeeling has been put on alert. Superintendent of Police (SP) Praveen Parkash said the police patrolling in the border has been intensified.
“A police post has been set up here at the round-up with deployment of force. We are in alert mode and monitoring the situation with the help of security agencies and the Nepal police. There’s no information about anyone being stuck. The police have heightened patrolling at the border area,” the SP told news agency ANI.
