Kathmandu, Nepal has entered uncharted political terrain. On Friday, Sushila Karki, the country’s first female chief justice and a figure long admired for her fierce independence and crusade against corruption, was sworn in as caretaker leader. Her appointment follows a week of deadly unrest that has laid bare the fragility of Nepal’s democratic experiment and the frustrations of a restless generation demanding change.
The announcement came after a dramatic chain of events: student-led demonstrations that began peacefully on Monday against a controversial social media ban turned violent when security forces opened fire on crowds, killing several protesters. The crackdown galvanized Nepal’s “Gen Z” activists – the youth, tech-savvy and disillusioned with political elites, who transformed campuses and public squares into sites of resistance. By Tuesday, anger had boiled over into rioting across major towns. Government offices were set ablaze, police stations looted, and symbols of state authority toppled in scenes the country had not witnessed since the monarchy’s fall nearly two decades ago. More than 50 people have been killed, according to police figures, and the material losses run into the thousands of buildings destroyed.
Faced with the mounting death toll, the prime minister resigned midweek, taking responsibility for what many Nepalis saw as a moral and political collapse. The controversial social media ban was swiftly revoked, but the damage was done: young protesters had tasted both grief and power. In that void, the appointment of Karki, a nonpartisan figure known for her resistance to political interference during her time on the bench, emerged as a compromise between protesters’ demands and the state’s need for stability.
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