Show-cause notice to govt on Bhairabnath ‘disappearances’

The Supreme Court issued a show-cause notice to the government on Monday, ordering the concerned authority to furnish written clarification as to why no proper inquiry was initiated into allegation of enforced disappearance of detainees from the army’s Bhairab Nath Battalion in Maharajgunj, Kathmandu.

Deciding on a writ petition filed by advocate Jit Man Banet on Sunday, a single bench of Justice Min Bahadur Rayamajhi asked the concerned government authority to furnish a written statement to the court within 15 days.

Advocates Mohan Murti Panta, Nar Bahadur Khadka and Basnet himself had presented arguments in favour of the writ petition.

The writ demands an independent probe into the ‘disappearance’ of 49 detainees by the army in 2004, terming the government’s latest report, which claimed that the army didn’t disappear 49 persons from the Bhairabnath Battalion, as unreliable and demands that the court order the government to set up an inquiry commission to find out the condition of the disappeared persons and suspend the army personnel and government officials responsible for the disappearances and start legal action against them.

According to the writ, several detainees went missing from the ‘secret’ detention facility inside the Bhairab Nath Battalion in 2004.