What remains after Nepal’s Gen Z protests? Survivors reflect one year later

Nepal marked its first Gen-Z Martyrs' Day on September 8, 2026, a year after student-led protests over corruption and a social media ban reshaped the country's politics. The protests, which began without a leader, escalated into confrontations with police that left demonstrators like Liza Adhikari, 21, and Shantanu Dhakal, 18, with severe and lasting injuries from gunfire.

Adhikari, shot from behind near Parliament, has undergone brachial plexus surgery in India with an uncertain prognosis; she has not returned to her university studies. Dhakal, shot through the jaw in Itahari, endured a tracheostomy and grafting and still lives with the physical and psychological aftermath ten months on.

A year out, the government has given the movement a holiday and a name, while the young people who bled for it are still filling out hospital forms and asking strangers on social media for help paying for surgery.

The full dispatch is available from the source below.