Nepal holds state funeral for Gen Z martyrs as nation mourns protest casualties

Nepal bid farewell on Tuesday to young men and women killed during the Gen Z protests, with a solemn state funeral that underscored both the grief of families and the historic scale of the uprising that shook the nation this month.

The funeral procession began at Tribhuvan University Teaching Hospital in Maharajgunj, where bodies had been kept for postmortem, and moved through the capital to Pashupati Aryaghat.

Along the route, crowds gathered to pay their respects. The bodies, draped in the national flag, were formally recognized as martyrs by the government — a symbolic gesture that places the slain youths alongside past generations of political fighters in Nepal’s turbulent democratic journey.

Inside the hospital compound, families wept as they bid farewell to loved ones — teenagers, university students, and young workers, all between the ages of 13 and 28 — whose lives were cut short in a movement that began on September 8 as a protest against the government’s attempt to restrict social media platforms.

Senior leaders, including Energy Minister Kulman Ghising and Home and Law Minister Om Prakash Aryal, attended the ceremony, personally honoring the dead by draping them with the national flag.

Of the ten martyrs whose bodies were part of the state funeral, four were cremated at Pashupati, while six were flown to their hometowns by Nepal Army helicopters for final rites.

The government has announced a relief package of 1.5 million rupees for each martyr’s family — one million in compensation and 500,000 for funeral and related expenses. Relief funds will be distributed through the Ministry of Home Affairs and district administrations. Authorities have also pledged free medical treatment for the injured and approved plans to construct a memorial park in honor of the martyrs.

According to official figures, the protests have so far claimed 72 lives and left more than 2,300 injured, with 283 people still undergoing treatment in hospitals. The scale of casualties reflects the intensity of clashes between security forces and demonstrators, and underscores how a movement driven largely by Nepal’s digitally connected Generation Z evolved into the most serious political crisis the country has faced in over a decade.

The recognition of the fallen as martyrs ties this youth-led struggle to Nepal’s long tradition of movements against entrenched power — from the fight for democracy in the 1990s to the 2006 people’s movement. But unlike previous uprisings led by established parties, this protest was driven by leaderless, social-media-savvy youths who mobilized rapidly and demanded accountability, jobs, and dignity.