 Thousands of people hid the streets of Beirut, Lebanon to mark two years of the Beirut port blast on August 4. The protesters carried with them pictures of the deceased victims and demanded justice for them. Residents of the city have still not gotten over the trauma of the blast in the port in August 2020. The blast was one of the largest non-nuclear explosions in history and left 218 dead and 7,500 injured. It was claimed to have been caused by a fire involving 2,000 tons of highly inflamable materials stored at a warehouse at the port. People in the city still vividly remember the details of the horrific day which shook them badly. In a country of less than 7 million population, 300,000 people were rendered homeless as a consequence of the blast. According to government estimates, property worth billions of dollars was destroyed. However, the explosion in Beirut on 4 August was not an accident, according to reports. The highly flammable cargo which exploded was held in the warehouse for over 6 years and experts attribute government negligence to the blast. Following the blast, a two-week emergency was imposed in the country by former Prime Minister Hassan Diab who had to resign following political unrest in August 2020. In November, Judge Fadi Saban ordered an investigation on 10 former ministers who were allegedly responsible for the conditions that paved the way for the blast. However, he was replaced by Judge Tariq Bitar following complaints. Observers have pointed out that the probe has become a forum for political battles to be waged. One year after the blast, in August 2021, Human Rights Watch released a report saying nothing was done. The probe was suspended finally in October after ministers registered new legal complaints against the judge. Lebanon was already facing an economic crisis when this blast took place. Years of misgovernance, neoliberal economic policies and corruption had pushed the country into an economic and political crisis. The loss following the blast which amounts to billions was humongous for an economy which was already on the verge of collapse. Even before this disaster, Lebanon was seeking a 5 billion US dollar loan from the International Monetary Fund to tackle the ongoing economic crisis in the country. Today, Lebanon is suffering under the policies adopted in the last three decades which led the banking system to dominate the economy. The over-liberalized economy now finds itself extremely vulnerable to any kind of global disturbance. Even prior to Lebanon's currently accelerating financial disintegration, in 2019, youth unemployment was estimated at nearly 40% and by 2020 June, nearly half of the country's population had been pushed into poverty. Lebanon also has a huge refugee population of around 1.5 million, most of whom are Syrians. According to 2019 estimates, 73% of Syrian refugees, 65% of Palestinians and 27% of the Lebanese population was living in poverty. The blast increased the anger among the Lebanese people already under strain due to the economic crisis in the country at the COVID-19 related lockdown. Massive demonstrations were held demanding justice for the victims of the blast. The protesters were also demanding widespread systemic reforms in the country's political system. Recently, grain silos collapsed in the Port of Beirut on Sunday, July 31 following a fire that had been burning for weeks. Activists have alleged foul play over this and accused the authorities in action to extinguish the fire as a ploy to destroy evidence of the blasts which were present in the silos.