Brihat Nagarik Aandolan, an alliance formed by civil society members and people from various walks of life, held a march on Friday as part of its protests triggered by the dissolution of the House of Representatives.

The march, dubbed Tudikhel March, has been organised to mark the 71st Democracy Day and also plans to make public its ‘manifesto’ besides reclaiming the public space ‘captured by the Nepal Army’.

However, the march, that started from Ratnapark, converged into a gathering in front of the Tri-Chandra Military Hospital as authorities had padlocked Tundikhel gate and mobilised the Nepal Army inside it.

[Photo story: Once upon a time, Kathmandu’s Tundikhel was large, wide, free and open]

Although the movement began after Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli’s December 20 House dissolution move, organisers of the protest say their struggle won’t be limited to getting the House reinstated or replacing Oli with another face.

Besides carrying out protests and demonstrations against the House dissolution, it also held a women’s march in Kathmandu demanding an end to violence against women and impunity, and Tribhuvan University march calling for an end to political appointments at academic institutions.

“Actually, we wanted to present a unified face for all fragmented movements that were quashed and ignored by the state at different times,” Bhaskar Gautam, one of the organisers, had earlier told the Post. “Due to the incompetence of our representatives, the country has fallen into the quagmire of regression even several years after the promulgation of the new constitution.”

Several civil society members had started the ‘Occupy Tundikhel’ movement in November 2019, but it was affected by the Covid-19 pandemic. Now with the resumption of Brihat Nagarik Andolan, that issue would also be raised, according to those involved in that struggle.

“Our struggle was affected by the pandemic, but we will resume it once again with more vigour,” Ganapati Lal Shrestha, one of the organisers of the Occupy Tundikhel movement, had earlier told the Post. “The army has occupied all open space in Tundikhel, we have been reclaiming them as public space.

Here are some photos of the Tundikhel march by Post photographers Angad Dhakal and Prakash Chandra Timilsena.

This photo story has been updated to add the third paragraph.