Kathmandu, February 15:

The Society of Citizens Disappeared by the State (SCDS) today began collecting signatures to press the government to make public the whereabouts of the citizens disappeared by the government on charges of being terrorists.

The Society of Citizens Disappeared by the State collected over 8,000 signatures from Dillibazar and New Baneshwor on the first day of the campaign that will last till February 22.

Shanta Bhandari, the coordinator of the Society of Citizens Disappeared by the State, said the Society will send the signatures to different international human rights bodies and ask them to put pressure on the Nepal government to honour international humanitarian laws.

She said all efforts, including hunger strikes, to make the government hear their voice have been neglected.

“The government formed a committee a year ago but it made public the whereabouts of only drunkards and criminals but not of those civilians who were mysteriously abducted by the security forces on charge of being Maoists.

Besides, the security personnel did not even allow them to collect signatures from the street.

Earlier, security forces had obstructed the Society from collecting signatures at Ratna Park and Bagbazaar.

According to the Society of Citizens Disappeared by the State, 1,094 civilians across the country have been disappeared by the State and the security forces deny having any knowledge on them.