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Chowdhury, was killed by the soldiers as he was working to repair a neighbor’s roof (see
below). According to the villagers, Chatak Bahadur Chowdhury was not affiliated with
the Maoists, and had spent most of the previous eight years working in India.
Twenty-five-year-old Dani Ram Chowdhury was arrested by a group of twenty to
thirty RNA soldiers while repairing the roof of his home, together with many of the
villagers who had come to help him. 80 Twenty-eight-year-old Kedarnath Chowdhury, a
carpenter by trade, and thirty-two-year-old Bhim Bhahadur Chowdhury were arrested
from the same home where Cheilak Bahadur was killed, while also helping to repair the
roof. 81 Sixteen-year-old Hari Lal Chowdhury was also arrested there, and then brought
to his parental home in the same village, where the soldiers then tried to arrest his
disabled uncle. However, the man could not walk, and the soldiers only took Hari Lal
away. Hari Lal’s other uncle, forty-year-old Udaya Chowdhury, was also detained that
day. 82
Fifty-year-old Khim Bahadur Pun, a farmer, was working at his rice mill when soldiers
came to his home, asked for him by name, and took him away. His young son followed
the soldiers to the river, where they gave him his father’s watch and money, and told him
they were going to kill his father. 83
A large group of detained villagers, estimated at about fifty, was taken to the nearby
river, where they were interrogated by the soldiers. The soldiers left with the six
detainees named above, who were never seen again. The families informed local human
rights organizations, the NHRC, and the ICRC of the “disappearances,” and visited
various detention centers in the district, but were unable to obtain any further
information. Several times, relatives were told by officials that the men had been killed in
an “encounter,” and local newspapers also published rumors to that effect, but there has
been no official confirmation. The group of six men “disappeared” after last being seen
alive in RNA custody. 84
80
Human Rights Watch interview with a relative of Dani Ram Chowdhury, Dang, September 25, 2004.
81
Human Rights Watch interview with a relative of Kedarnath Chowdhury, Dang, September 25, 2004.
82
Human Rights Watch interview with a relative of Hari Lal Chowdhury, Dang, September 25, 2004
83
Human Rights Watch interview with a relative of Kim Bahadur Pun, Dang, September 25, 2004.
84
Human Rights Watch interview with a relative of Kim Bahadur Pun, Dang, September 25, 2004; Human
Rights Watch interview with a relative of Dani Ram Chowdhury, Dang, September 25, 2004.
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