NEPALI demonstrators set parliament ablaze on Tuesday while the veteran prime minister Sharma Oli quit, as a “Gen Z” protest movement sparked by a ban on social media overtook the Himalayan nation.
At least 19 people were killed during rallies a day earlier, one of the deadliest crackdowns in years, which fuelled public anger.
Protesters flooded the streets of the capital Kathmandu, on Tuesday, some jubilant and celebrating, others setting fire to government buildings and brandishing automatic rifles.
The rapid descent into chaos shocked many, and Nepal’s military warned against “activities that could lead the country into unrest and instability” in the country of 30 million people.
Protests began on Monday with demands that the government lift a ban on social media and tackle corruption, with police trying to crush the rallies — including using live ammunition, according to Amnesty International.
On Tuesday, despite the government rolling back its order and the apps returning online, protests reignited, spreading from the capital to multiple cities nationwide.
“The Nepal government has fallen, the youth have won the protest,” said key protest figure Sudan Gurung, in a post on newly-restored Instagram. “The future is ours.”
Gangs on Tuesday attacked and set fire to KP Sharma Oli’s house, the 73-year-old, four-time prime minister and leader of the Communist Party. His whereabouts are not known.
Plumes of smoke also covered Nepal’s parliament as demonstrators breached the fence and “torched the main building,” Ekram Giri, spokesman for the Parliament Secretariat, told AFP.
President Ramchandra Paudel, whose offices were also set on fire by mobs, pleaded for “all parties to exercise restraint, to not allow further damage”.
The call was echoed by neighbouring India, with Prime Minister Narendra Modi saying that the “stability, peace and prosperity of Nepal are of utmost importance to us”.
The United Nations rights chief, Volker Turk, said he was “appalled” by the violence and called for talks.
Reporters Without Borders (RSF) said the headquarters of a major publisher, the Kantipur Media Group was burning, and called on “protesters not to target journalists”
Protesters, mostly young men, were seen waving the country’s national flag as they dodged water cannons.
The International Crisis Group called it a “major inflection point in the country’s uneasy experience with democratic rule”.
Kathmandu’s airport remains open, but some flights were cancelled after smoke from fires affected visibility, airport spokesman Rinji Sherpa said.