More than 10 years after their disappearance and murder, the remains of the five young men from Dhanusha is finally being handed over to their families today at Devi Chowk in Janakpur, the same place from where they were picked up by the joint security forces. Earlier today morning, Bed Bhattarai, acting secretary of the National Human Rights Commission, briefed the media about the case. State representatives were conspicuous by their absence.

On 8 October 2003, Sanjeev Kumar Karna (24), Durgesh Labh (23), Jitendra Jha (20), Pramod Narayan Mandal (19), Shailendra Yadav (17) along with six other friends were taken into custody while they were at a picnic. The ill-fated five were never seen again. They were reportedly taken to the banks of the Kamala River in Godar and shot dead by the army.

In August 2010, an exhumation team led by the NHRC unearthed four bodies near the Kamala River. The remains were sent to the University of Helsinki in Finland and the National Forensic Laboratory in Kathmandu for DNA testing. The remains of the fifth person were sent only last year for examination. Results confirmed that Karna, Labh, Jha, Mandal, and Yadav were the ones who were killed.

At the time of the murders, Chuda Bahadur Shrestha was the chief of the regional police office, Kuber Singh Rana, former IGP of Nepal Police was then SSP of the District Police Office in Dhanusha, Rewati Raj Kafle was the chief district officer in Dhanusha, and Major Anup Adhikari was at the Dharapani Army Barrack. In March this year, the Ministry of Peace and Reconstruction appointed Shrestha in the 11-member taskforce which was set up to make recommendations for a TRC bill. Shrestha resigned after victims objected.