Kathmandu, January 28

Police still remain clueless about the whereabouts of a schoolboy, who has been missing since Thursday.

John Tamang, a sixth grader of Ajaya Shiksha Sadan at Thasikhel in Lalitpur, was among 11 students going to Phulchowki Hill for hiking led by school principal Durga Bahadur Oli.

The hikers found that Tamang had gone missing after they climbed down the hill to reach Godavari at around 4:00pm on Thursday. Godavari is around seven kilometres from the hilltop. Tamang, 17, is a local of Thasikhel.

Oli and other students searched for him, but to no avail and alerted the police about it. Parts of Phulchowki has dense forests and receive snowfall in winter.

An official at Metropolitan Police Range, Jawalakhel, said separate search and rescue teams of Nepali Army, Nepal Police, Armed Police Force, students, guardians and the locals had been deployed to different areas of the hill to  search for Tamang.

Police have arrested principal Oli for investigation. Meanwhile, Thasikhel locals and kin of Tamang staged protest in front of Metropolitan Police Circle, Satdobati, demanding that police trace the missing child and initiate action against the guilty.