Archive ref no: NCA-18675
Document - Nepal: Further information on disappearance/Fear of Torture
PUBLIC AI Index: ASA 31/28/00
18 September 2000
Further information on EXTRA 125/99 (ASA 31/13/99, 8 September 1999) and follow-up (ASA 31/17/99, 3 December 1999) - Disappearance/Fear of Torture
NEPAL Bishnu Pukar Shrestha, school teacher, human rights defender
Bishnu Pukar Shrestha was released on 7 July after 10 months in unacknowledged detention.
In a letter to Amnesty International dated 6 August 2000, he wrote: "I owe for the tremendous job performed by you, the Secretary General, the staff and officials of Amnesty International for my release. I would like to extend my cordial thanks to all of them who [were] involved to bring me out of the mouth of death..."
Bishnu Pukar Shrestha had "disappeared", after six men believed to be plainclothes police officers forced him into a jeep in Satumangal, southwest of Kathmandu, on 2 September 1999.
Amnesty International received reliable information that Bishnu Pukar Shrestha was mostly held incommunicado in the Armed Forces Section of the Police Training Centre at Maharajgunj, Kathmandu, an unofficial place of detention.
No further action from the network is required. Thank you to all those who sent appeals.