NEPALGUNJ, NOVEMBER 5

The son of Moraja Rai, chairperson of Saigaun ward of Janaki Rural Municipality, Banke, 12-year-old Sahil has gone missing for the past three days.

According to family sources, Sahil has been out of contact after he left home accompanied by 22-year-old Hanuman Kurmi yesterday morning. Sahil’s uncle Samsul Rai suspected that the boy was kidnapped.

“As he couldn’t be contacted for three days, we have informed the police and have been searching for him. So far, there has been no trace of him,”

Samsul said, accusing police of not showing enough seriousness about searching for the missing boy.

Family sources suspect the boy might have been kidnapped over a dispute related to construction of a roadside ditch in Pachpokhara about a month ago.

It’s important to note that attempts were made to attack the ward chairperson when he was in Pachpokhara to arbitrate a dispute between two groups of villagers over a roadside ditch construction one-and-a-half months ago. A few locals were also injured when some youths hurled stones at the ward chair from housetops in that incident.

Though a case was registered with the police regarding the assault attempt on the ward chair, no one has been detained so far.

Police, on their part, have said a search for the missing boy was under way. “As soon as we learnt about the missing boy, we launched a search operation,” said Banke police Chief SP Om Bahadur Rana, adding that police would find the missing child at all cost.

“We have also detained a few persons to investigate the incident, We can’t, however, disclose everything now,” the police officer said.