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abandoned their search, reporting the case to local human rights activists, but too afraid
to go to the ICRC and NHRC to seek assistance. 45
Nawalparasi
48. Pushpa Raj Devkota
Twenty-eight-year-old Pushpa Raj Devkota was a local Maoist activist responsible for
propagandistic work. He was arrested on December 24, 2003 (Poush 9, 2060), in Parasi
Bazzar, Nawalparasi district. The family found out about his arrest about a month and a
half later from a letter delivered by a messenger. The letter indicated that Devkota was
arrested by “security personnel in civilian clothes.”
Several days later the family reported the case to INSEC and the ICRC. On July 11,
2004, after a visit to the Nawalparasi barracks, a respected international organization
informed them that the army had admitted they killed Devkota in the barracks on May
20, 2004 (Jestha 7,2061).
The organization urged the army to inform the family, but the RNA refrained from
doing so. The relatives did not dare to contact the barracks themselves, fearing
persecution. They contacted the CDO, and were told that nobody was killed inside the
barracks, but that one person died while being transported to a hospital from the
barracks, and that that might have been Devkota. The death was never formally
acknowledged, and Devkota remains “disappeared” to date. 46
45
Human Rights Watch interview with a relative of Juna Dhakal, Gorkha, September 20, 2001.
46
Human Rights Watch interview with a relative of Pushpa Raj Devkota, Gorkha, September 20, 2001.
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