Jajarkot, January 31

The three persons who went missing while on a hunt  for setakchini — a medicinal herb — from the upper belt of Jajarkot have  come in contact after 11 days.

Man Bahadur Rokaya, 35, Gorakh Rokaya, 25, and Birkha Bahadur Rokaya, 34, of Mulsam in the rural municipality had gone to collect the herb at  an altitude of 4,000 metres on January 20.

According to Barekot Rural Municipality Chairperson Mahendra Bahadur Shah, they called him up today to inform  they were safe.

“Birkha Bahadur Rokaya called me up  this afternoon and informed that they were safe as they had taken  shelter in a cave during heavy snowfall,” said Shah. According to  them, they will reach their village in seven to eight hours, but as they also said the weather was not good yet, I have talked to the CDO and asked  him for help in case we need to rescue them,” he further added.

Earlier, Nar Bahadur Rawal, 50, and Kali Rawal, 46 had also gone to collect the medicinal herb with the three. Nar Bahadur and Kali returned home on Monday. Nar Bahadur said there was heavy snowfall after rainfall when they reached Barelake.

“We managed to save our lives by avoiding the snowfall, but the whereabouts of other friends is yet to be known,” Kalihad said, adding that they had returned home after eight days and were exhausted.

Chairman of Barekot Rural Municipality Mahendra Bahadur Shah had urged the federal government to search for the missing with the help of a helicopter as rescue operation in heavy snowfall would be ineffective.