Kathmandu, November 5

Due to the failure of the government to categorise torture victims of the decade-long Maoist insurgency, a large number of victims have been deprived of relief.

Conflict victims who faced torture during the insurgency claimed they were in physical and mental trauma, and on medication, but the government had not provided them any relief.

Devi Sunar of Kavre lost four members of her family — husband, daughter, brother and sister — during the conflict. She then left her home with two sons and started living in a small room in Kathmandu.

“I got the relief provided by the government, but the government has not provided me conflict victim identity card,” she said.

Recalling the decade-long conflict, Sushila Chaudhari shared, “I was studying in Grade VI then. The Maoists displaced us, killed my brother and disappeared my sister. I then fled from my home in Ghorahi and lived without parents for four years. I also could not pass School Leaving Certificate exam.”

Chaudhari rued that the government did not recognise her as a conflict victim despite her sufferings during the Maoist insurgency.

“The government has been distributing relief to the families of those killed and disappeared. It should also provide relief to torture victims like us,” he asserted.

Chaudhari claimed that Dang was the hardest hit by the conflict.

“As many as four hundred people were killed and 106 disappeared. Some of the victims are on medication for life, but the state has failed to identify torture victims. Their lives are as difficult as those of other victims,” she claimed.