Gen Z leader Tanuja Pandey demands justice for crackdown & vandalism

KATHMANDU: Gen Z movement leader Tanuja Pandey has demanded that those responsible for both the government crackdown on Bhadra 23 and the acts of vandalism that followed on Bhadra 24 be brought to justice.

In a statement shared on social media, Pandey alleged that while the movement began as an emotional and spontaneous public uprising, it was later infiltrated and deliberately turned violent through planned acts of arson and destruction.

She stressed that justice must be ensured not only for those who carried out killings during the state repression but also for those who hijacked the movement and engaged in vandalism in its name.

Referring to a photograph by renowned artist Ravi Laxmi Chitrakar, Pandey said it deeply affected her and described the Bhadra 23 incident as a “massacre” carried out by the state against its own citizens. “The entire nation was plunged into mourning that day,” she wrote. “Witnessing friends and fellow citizens fall naturally provoked anger, grief, and pain. The outrage that spilled onto the streets on Bhadra 24 was born out of that suffering.”

However, she clearly distanced the Gen Z movement from the incidents of arson and destruction that occurred the following day.

Pandey stated that the masses who took to the streets were unarmed, unplanned, and lacked any coordinated structure.

She pointed out that the similar pattern of vandalism seen simultaneously across the country suggested the involvement of organized groups or infiltrators.

“What happened afterward in the name of the movement was not merely spontaneous anger,” she said, questioning how a loosely organized, unarmed Gen-Z group could carry out such large-scale, coordinated destruction. “Those actions were against the soul and moral foundation of our movement.”

Pandey urged the state to abandon double standards and conduct an impartial investigation into both incidents. Warning of serious consequences, she said that failure to deliver justice to the martyrs and punish those responsible for violence would leave this period as a “black stain” in Nepal’s history.

“If injustice and impunity are protected,” she concluded, “this country will be remembered in history only as a failed state.”

धेरैजनाले मलाई भदौ २४ को घटनाबारे प्रश्न गर्नुभएको छ। आज प्राज्ञ रवि लक्ष्मी चित्रकार म्याडम को तस्वीर देखेपछि, मौन बस्न सकिनँ।

भदौ २३ मा तत्कालीन राज्यसत्ताले आफ्नै नागरिकलाई निर्दयतापूर्वक हत्या गर्‍यो। त्यो दिन सम्पूर्ण नेपाल शोकमा डुबेको थियो। यस्तो नरसंहार पछि एक मानवको…

— Tanuja pandey (@TanujaPandey_) December 24, 2025