The Officer Nepal Lost

When 25-year-old Yogendra Neupane left his village in Sindhuli’s Golanjor-1 for Kathmandu, he carried a single ambition: to one day become a civil service officer.

He had passed the written exam last year, fallen short in the interview, and returned to the capital with a renewed determination, convinced he could make it this time.

But on 8 September, as Nepal’s Gen-Z movement surged into the streets demanding an end to corruption and state capture, Yogendra’s dream collapsed in the smoke and chaos at New Baneshwor.

A police bullet struck him during the first day of protests.

He died where he had once pictured his future beginning.

A family built on service, left searching for answers

In Chyakhutar, the news travelled fast.

Yogendra came from a family steeped in public service – neighbours, teachers, and civil servants all around him.

His father, Yuvraj Neupane, a schoolteacher, believed his eldest son would soon join the ranks.

“He told us his exam had gone well,” his father recalls.

“We waited for his name to appear. Instead, we received the news no parent should ever hear.”

For his mother, Laxmi, the memories arrive uninvited.

Yogendra had called days earlier, promising he would come home for Dashain after months away.

“‘I’ll be home soon,’ he said,” she whispers, tears rising. “But now he will never return.”

Relatives describe Yogendra as soft-spoken, diligent, and far removed from the rough-and-tumble of Nepal’s political culture.

He studied at Tri-Chandra College and rarely joined any rallies.

He followed national news, they say, the way young people everywhere do, curious but cautious.

“Politics was never his thing,” says Peshal Neupane, a neighbour and local schoolteacher.

“He was different from many youths humble, hardworking, focused. Our community has lost one of its most capable sons.”

The Gen-Z protests, led mostly by students and young professionals, erupted with calls for transparency and an end to entrenched corruption.

But the death of an aspiring civil servant, someone who believed in the very system he hoped to join, has sent a tremor through the national conversation.

The government has since declared those killed in the Gen-Z movement as martyrs.

Yogendra was the eldest of three siblings- one sister, two brothers.

He had been preparing for another attempt at the civil service exam, hoping to bring pride to his parents and stability to the family.

Today, the Neupane home remains heavy with silence.