KATHMANDU JANUARY 10
Family of Khom Kumar Bhujel, 27, a resident of Champadevi Rural Municipality-1 who had joined the Russian Army nearly three months ago, have not been able to establish contact with him since December 5.
The Bhujel family is worried now as a Nepali friend who was working along with him in the Russian Army told the family that Bhujel who had been deployed to border region with Ukraine, died in a missile attack launched by the Ukrainian side. Bhujel's younger cousin Ramit told THT that his brother's friend told the family that Bhujel was killed in a bomb attack launched by the Ukrainian side. Nobody, neither the Government of Nepal nor the Government of Russia has confirmed the status of my brother, but we worry about our brother now as his friend told us that he was killed in the attack launched by Ukraine," Ramit added. The friend who informed the Bhujel family of the incident also received pellet injuries and undergoing treatment in Russia now, according to Ramit.
Khom Kumar Bhujel, the only son of the family had been working in Qatar for two years before he left Quatar in October after paying more than Rs 500000 to middlemen who lured him to Russia saying that he would get Rs 3,90,000 salary per month and he could apply for permanent residency card after serving the Russian Army for one year. He was also told that he could take his family to Russia and settle there. Khom Kumar Bhujel has wife and a six-year-old son in Nepal.
Bhujel family is worried because Khom Kumar Bhujel's another Nepali fellow serving the Russian Army was killed recently. Ramit said that he would talk to Khom Kumar regularly before December 5 but after December 5 he never heard from him. Khom Kumar had told Ramit that he was being taken to war zone for a week after training.
Meanwhile, Foreign Minister NP Saud today said at a public programme in his home district of Kanchanpur that he had received information from the Russian government that 10 Nepalis serving the Russian Army had died. He said Department of Consular Services had informed him that families of 115 people who had gone to Russia had filed petition with the Department seeking information about them.
Saud expected that more than 200 people had joined the Russian Army.
Minister Saud said that the government had no plan to send Nepalis to risky zones and or to allow them to join foreign armies. Nepalis can join Indian Army and British Army but that is under the tripartite agreement.
Saud said that he had been talking to Russian authorities seeking repatriation of the bodies of Nepalis nationals killed in Russia's border region, return of those Nepali nationals who were injured in the war zone and the financial benefits that the families of those Nepali nationals that died in action wee entitled to.
Minister Saud also said that diplomatic efforts were being made to secure return of Nepali nationals who had joined the Russian Army.
