Nepal, Oct. 7 -- I was driving my daughter back from a relative's house in Baneswar where she had taken refuge after a curfew was declared the previous day while she was in school. She was riding pillion on the back of my moped.

We drove past Parliament where 19 people had been killed by police the previous day. We passed Thapathali, where the Kantipur highrise was on fire. The sky had gone dark, and the stinging smoke made it hard to breathe.

A gas cylinder exploded, and the crowd dispersed briefly. The blast provided a moment to escape the raging mob. By myself I may not have been so scared, but my daughter's safety made me more afraid. I had never been this frightened in my journalism career, even while covering the Maoist insurgency...