Members of the International Red Cross (IRC) have started searching for the bodies of those who had gone missing in March 2002 when the Maoist insurgency was at its peak in Libang-1 of Rolpa district.

The IRC members are being assisted by the local peace committee.

The IRC team has been searching the grave(s) of four persons, who were allegedly disappeared by then Royal Nepal Army (RNA), in a local forest in Libang-6.

The Army had allegedly arrested Kabiram Khatri, 41, Dhaniram Oli, 39, Harkalal Thapa, 45, and Dhante Thapa, 17, of Libang-1 in separate incidents and killed them.

Some human skeletons, clothes and utensils were found in the Dharhalne jungle last week.

According to the families of the victims, the Army had disappeared four persons when they had gone to the forest to collect timber. Villagers had alleged that the Army had made them stand in line and shot them to death.

“The Army had arrested them for an ‘inquiry’, accusing them of being Maoist rebels,” said a local of Harigatina, preferring anonymity. “The Army personnel had shot one of the arrestees four times and then let other three carry the injured to hospital, but they killed all four while they were on their way to Libang Hospital.”

Ghanashyam Acharya, a member of the IRC team, suspected that the four persons were shot dead and their bodies were hidden. “According to information provided by the villagers, the four persons were killed by security personnel,” said Acharya.

Another local of the village, however, said that the security personnel had arrested the four persons from their village, not from the jungle.

Though the families of the victims have received government relief, they have been demanding that the IRC and human rights activists identify the graves of the dead.

According to the District Administration Office, at least 33 people were disappeared during the decade-long Maoist insurgency in the district. Out of 33 people, 27 were disappeared by the state and six were disappeared at the hands of Maoist rebels.  

So far, families of 946 persons who were killed in the district during the Maoist insurgency have received government relief.