NEPALGUNUJ: Family members of those who were disappeared during the armed conflict have expressed outrage at the government for its continued apathy towards their plea to find their beloved ones.

The kin of the disappeared were assembled today at the District Administration Office in Banke to voice their concerns.

The victims also submitted a memorandum on the 26th International Day of the Disappeared.

Vice-chairman of the Conflict Victims’ Society for Justice Chandrakala Uprety said that the government remained a mute spectator even as they continued to press for making public the names of their near and dear ones disappeared during the conflict.

She also blamed the government and the Maoists for trying to overshadow their cause. A resident of Ji village of Banakatawa VDC 4 in Banke Yogmaya Dahal, who came to submit the memorandum, said that her husband Kamal Prasad Dahal was disappeared by the army while he was teaching in a local school, in January 1 of 2001. Story of Devisara Oli of Kohalpur VDC 5 is nonetheless heart-rending. The Maoists had disappeared her husband Prem Bahadur in September 6 of 2003. “Six years have passed since that terrible night; I don’t know yet whether my husband is dead or alive,” she broke into tears.

From the beginning of the Maoist people’s war to signing of the comprehensive peace accord, 582 innocent Nepalis had been disappeared by state and Maoists in the Mid-Western Region.