An eerie calm returned to Nepal on Wednesday after an army-enforced curfew paused two days of anti-government protests that had convulsed the capital Kathmandu and other cities, with predominantly young demonstrators burning tires, ransacking ministries, and invading politicians’ homes so that the occupants had to be airlifted to safety.

At least 22 people lost their lives and hundreds more were injured by security forces in the carnage, which was ostensibly sparked by state attempts to block access to social media but in truth reflect an explosion of long bottled-up rage against political corruption and widespread inequality in the Himalayan nation of 30 million.

The banning of 26 social-media platforms including Facebook, YouTube, and X was officially due to the companies’ failure to

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