Nepal protests toll 51, Ghaziabad woman only Indian among dead

She tried to escape the burning Kathmandu hotel by lowering herself from the fourth floor with the help of a curtain — and her husband’s steadying hands. But the desperate attempt failed.

Rajesh Devi Gola slipped and fell to her death, cutting short what was meant to be a long-planned pilgrimage to the Pashupatinath temple in Nepal’s capital. The 55-year-old woman from Ghaziabad, Uttar Pradesh, was the only Indian among the 51 people killed in the violent Gen Z-led protests that swept through the Himalayan nation this week.

Two days after the tragedy, her husband Ramveer Singh Saini waited at the Sonauli border in Uttar Pradesh’s Maharajganj district on Thursday, as an ambulance brought back her body from Nepal.

The grieving widower recalled their desperate bid to flee the luxury hotel where they had checked in on 7 September. The following day, they had fulfilled their wish of offering prayers at the famed Pashupatinath temple.

By 9 September, however, unrest in Kathmandu had grown worse. When the couple tried to leave for the airport, they found it shut. “When we checked out on 9 September, there was a curfew. The airport was closed. Then we increased our stay at the hotel for a day,” Ramveer Singh told reporters.

In recent days, some younger demonstrators have tried to publicly distance themselves from the arson and violence. Social media posts by Nepal’s Gen Z activists have emphasised that their movement is about accountability and fighting corruption, not burning down institutions or putting innocent lives at risk. Many have argued that infiltrators or politically motivated groups may be exploiting the protests to escalate tensions, undermining the credibility of their cause.

Student groups, too, have issued appeals for restraint, saying the tragic loss of lives — including that of foreign visitors like Rajesh Devi — runs contrary to their vision of a peaceful push for systemic reform. For them, the destruction of heritage buildings, hotels, or government offices only feeds the very cycle of instability they claim to be resisting.

But for the Golas, the hotel became a death trap. Enraged protestors set it on fire with guests still inside. Ramveer managed to leap from a window and survive, but his wife slipped from the curtain he was using to lower her down. Though rushed to a hospital, she died from excessive bleeding.

“We tried to save our lives by jumping, during which my wife was injured. She was admitted to a hospital for treatment where she died on 9 September,” he said.

That same day, Nepal’s Prime Minister K.P. Sharma Oli resigned, after hundreds of agitators stormed his office demanding he step down over the protest deaths earlier in the week.

The unrest, however, did not abate. Demonstrators set fire to the Parliament, the President’s Office, the PM’s residence, government buildings, political party offices, and homes of senior leaders.

Nearly 1,700 people were injured during the protests. Of these, about 1,000 have since recovered and returned home, police said.

Nepal's hotel industry, a vital revenue earner of its tourism-driven economy, has suffered a loss of over Rs 25 billion after nearly two dozen hotels across the country were vandalised, looted or torched during the recent protests, according to a media report on Friday. Tourism accounts for nearly 7 per cent of Nepal’s GDP and is a major source of foreign exchange.

Among the worst hit is the Hilton Hotel in Kathmandu, which alone reported damages exceeding Rs 8 billion, My Republica news portal reported, quoting a statement issued by Hotel Association Nepal.

Senior Superintendent of Police Ramesh Thapa, co-spokesperson for Nepal Police, told the Kathmandu Post that among the 51 killed in the agitation against corruption and the ban on social media sites were one Indian national, three policemen, and dozens of Nepali citizens.

With PTI inputs