Kathmandu, October 29:

Umrawati Devi Shah, wife of abducted journalist Birendra Shah, today urged the CPN-Maoist to release her husband.

“We are ready to give whatever the Maoists ask us for releasing my husband,” she said at a press conference organised by Federation of Nepalese Journalists at Shanchargram today.

She demanded that her husband be released in whatever condition he is.

Shah’s brother Bhaiyaram claimed that his elder brother Birendra was abducted by the former chief of the “People’s Government of Bara”, Lal Bahadur Chaudhary.

During the function, FNJ president Bishnu Nisthuri demanded that the Maoists make public Shah’s whereabouts immediately. “The media sector is furious over the attack on free press and that the Maoists are trying to hide the guilty by forming a committee to probe into Shah’s abduction,” he said. He also expressed his concern over the indifference of the government to trace Shah.

The preliminary study reports by different human rights and media groups have also claimed that Maoist cadres had abducted Shah from Pipara bazar 25 days ago.

Umrawati is here in the capital along with her son Bibek Kumar and daughter Bidhya Laxmi

to seek the whereabouts of her husband.

Meanwhile, MPs today raised serious concern over the whereabouts of Shah. UML lawmaker Raghuji Pant, demanding special time in today’s sesison of the parliament, said the condition of Shah has been a mystery because the government has failed to make public his whereabouts.

“The district administration and the police are aware of who the culprits are, but they are quiet,” he said. Pant also asked the Maoists to take sincere initiative to come clear about Shah’s abduction.

Nepali Congress MP Mahendra Yadav asked the authorities concerned to make public the whereabouts of Shah.

Lokendra Bista of the CPN-Maoist said his party has taken the issue of Shah’s abduction very seriously and would “look into it.” Gobinda Bikram Shah of Rastriya Prajatantra Party said: “Isn’t it a shame on the part of the government for failing to make public the whereabouts of Shah?”