The United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights in Nepal (OHCHR) said here on Friday that 49 guerrilla detainees who were imprisoned from in September-December, 2003, have gone missing.

The Royal Nepalese Army (RNA) has not given any information of the whereabouts of the detainees and they have now gone missing, the report issued by the OHCHR stated.

According to the report, some 137 individuals who were arrested by the then RNA in 2003 and detained for varying periods at the Maharajgunj barracks in Kathmandu were subjected to severe and prolonged ill-treatment and torture.

Representative of OHCHR in Nepal Ian Martin said that he submitted the report to Prime Minister Girija Rasa Koirala and the Chief of Army Staff this week.

Speaking at the press conference organized by OHCHR, Martin said that those detainees were subjected to various methods of torture, including beating with plastic pipes on the lower back, legs and soles of the feet, submersion in water, and electric shocks along with handcuffing and blindfolding for up to 18 months continuously.

Those missing detainees in the last week of December 2003 might have been killed, detainees in course of interview said, the report stated.

A formal letter to investigate on the matter was sent to Human Rights Branch of Nepalese Army on 19 August, 2005 but the OHCHR never received any reply, the report stated.

Source: Xinhua