Promised crackdown on corruption is not happening fast enough for many who saw government toppled within a day of protests
P
rakash Bohora was one of the first of Nepal’s gen Z protesters to feel the sting of a police bullet. Like thousands of other young people, he had taken to the streets of the capital last month to protest against corruption and a draconian ban on social media.
He had no idea on that day in Kathmandu that the demonstration would escalate into what is now described as Nepal’s gen Z revolution, which has led to the toppling of the government within a day, the dissolution of parliament and appointment of a new interim prime minister, the anti-corruption hardliner Sushila Karki, by the end of the week.
Bohora was outside the parliament building in Kathmandu on the morning of 8 September when he heard the sound of gunfire and felt pain in his left leg. As his friend carried him to the nearby hospital, his bloodied trainer was left behind amid the pandemonium. A photograph of the shoe later went viral, an evocative symbol of the deadliest day of protest in Nepal’s history, with 19 protesters killed.
