POKHARA: The country has made impressive strides following the Comprehensive Peace Agreement some three years ago, relieving people from the wanton violence.

But, families of the people who were disappeared by security forces and the Maoists during the insurgency are still living with a trauma, with no information by the offenders over the real status of their kin.

“Various commissions and probe committees were formed to find disappeared persons during the armed struggle but we are still clueless whether they are dead or alive. How long shall we be suffering like this?” This is what 65-year-old Motimaya Poudel, told to journalists in Pokhara today. His son Purna was disappeared by Nepali Army in 2002.

In an interaction programme organised by Advocacy Forum Kaski, the next of kin of those disappeared remembered their missing near and dear ones. “For how long the state and the Maoists will keep us in dark by not revealing the truth about our family members?” another asked.

One Purushottam Khanal of Syangja said that other members of his family had been in the doldrums ever since the disappearance of his father by state forces. “So much so, without credible information and body, we already performed the after-death rituals.”

Jamuna Baral of Pokhara Amarsingh Chowk said she had been waiting for her disappeared husband from the last seven years. “Hoping he would come today or tomorrow, I have been spending my life,” she said. “The kids always ask about their father.”

In the Western Region alone, 133 persons have been disappeared — 124 by state and 9 by the Maoists.

Speaking in the interaction, human right activist Badri Subedi said, “Even the Maoist government did not listen to the heartrending cries of the family members.”

Right activist Khagaraj Acharya lamented as authorities have done nothing except for making the names of the disappeared persons public.

He said that the government should make provision for providing relief to the families of the disappeared persons.