The National Human Rights Commission has instructed the government to present a progress report on the implementation of the agreements with social activist Ruby Khan.

Khan has long been protesting in the streets of Kathmandu and Nepalgunj, demanding justice for the women killed mysteriously in Banke, her home district. Khan, accompanied by around a dozen of her colleagues, is staging a hunger strike demanding justice for Nankunni Dhobi and Sumarani Tharu, who were murdered under mysterious circumstances, and Nirmala Kurmi, who remains missing since 2010.

The constitutional human rights watchdog demanded the report after the dialogue between a home ministry panel and Khan.

“It has come to be known that the investigation committee under the Ministry of Home Affairs in 2021 had recommended probing the cases (murder and missing) after arresting the accused. However, the past agreements between the government and the protesters have not been implemented,” said Tikaram Pokharel, the commission spokesperson. “The Ministry of Home Affairs has been asked to report within seven days explaining the progress in implementing the agreements.”

After 12 days of protest, the government reached an agreement with Khan in October 2021. Based on the deal, a committee led by Hira Lal Regmi, then joint secretary at the home ministry, was formed. The committee, in its report submitted to then minister for home affairs Bal Krishna Khand, had recommended the arrest of, and investigation into, eight people for their alleged involvement in the disappearance of Nirmala.

The police arrested seven, who were released later, but never arrested Badshah Kurmi, former Lumbini Provincial Assembly member from the Nepali Congress. Badshah was also a Constituent Assembly member and an influential Congress leader in Banke.

With the government’s reluctance to implement the Regmi panel’s recommendation, Khan, accompanied by 15 others, walked to Kathmandu on foot from Banke and started a sit-in in the Capital on November 25, 2021. They withdrew their protest on the 42nd day after the government agreed to get the Central Investigation Bureau of Nepal Police to investigate Kurmi's disappearance, implement the home ministry’s probe report and provide security for the protesters.

Nankunni, 38, was found dead under suspicious circumstances at her home on July 20 in ward 2 of Janaki Rural Municipality in Banke. Nirmala, 52, had gone missing in January 2010 from the same rural municipality. Her disappearance came just two years after her two teenage sons were murdered within the span of a week. Khan has been demanding his arrest.

Khan, accompanied by 10 others, has been staging protests in Kathmandu since June 6 to build pressure on the federal government to abide by its past agreements. Though there have been two rounds of dialogue between the home ministry and Khan, there is no progress in resolving the matter.

Home ministry officials say they are not in a position to make any decision on the matter as it is currently under the judiciary’s purview. Khan, who has fallen ill due to the hunger strike, continues her protest from Bir Hospital while also receiving treatment.

A team from the commission had also inspected her health condition.