The whereabouts of Ram Bahadur Saud, a Nepal Police constable posted at a temporary police post in Jugeda in Kailali who had gone missing on Saturday night, is still unknown. Assistant Sub-Inspector Gobind BK, the in-charge of the police post, was found dead in the Mohana river on Sunday.

Relatives and neighbours of BK and Saud staged a rally in Dhangadhi on Monday demanding an investigation into Saud’s disappearance and support for BK’s family. They took out a protest rally from Chauraha and reached the District Administration Office on Monday.

On Sunday, BK’s body was found with deep cut injuries in Mohana river that is three kilometres away from the temporary police post. “We suspect that the two policemen were attacked by a gang of smugglers,” said Inspector Hikmat Thapa.

After hearing reports of smugglers being active in the border area, BK and Saud had gone to patrol the Nepal-India border area, according to the District Police Office in Kailali.

Saud’s nephew, Dhanraj Saud, who was in the rally on Sunday, said, “The authority should find out where my uncle is. We demand strong action against the guilty involved in the crime.”

Constable Saud is a permanent resident of Achham district and BK was the resident of Punarbas in Kanchanpur district.

According to police, BK had seized goods smuggled into Nepal from India on Thursday and the smugglers had pressured him not to send the confiscated goods to the District Police Office.

“BK and his team had been working aggressively to control smuggling in the Jugeda area. There is a high probability that smugglers were involved in Saud’s disappearance and BK’s killing,” said Singh.

Meanwhile, Sudurpaschim Province Police Office has intensified search to find the missing police officer and detain the criminals involved in the attack.

“A joint team of Nepal Police and Armed Police Force has been deployed in the area,” said Mukesh Kumar Singh, senior superintendent of police at the Provincial Police Office. According to him, more than 100 security personnel from the office and the District Police Office of Kailali and Kanchanpur have been deployed in the area to investigate the incident.

Similarly, a team from the Central Investigation Bureau also reached Dhangadhi on Monday to investigate the incident.