Police are looking for a member of the Bhutan Revolutionary Free Students' Force, a youth organisation that has claimed responsibility for the killing of RK Budhathoki, a prominent leader of the Bhutanese refugees in exile in Nepal.

Budhathoki, the first president of the Bhutan Peoples Party (BPP) was hacked to death in Damak, Jhapa on Sunday. He succumbed to serious neck injuries from a khukuri and died at Amda hospital in Damak. Budhathoki was attacked by about half-a-dozen young men at the BPP's youth wing office where he was attending a meeting. Police have arrested three people who were at that meeting and are on the look out for six other suspects who are absconding.

Budhathoki, who is survived by his wife and three children, left Bhutan in 1989 and settled down in Birtamod, Jhapa from where he continued to raise his voice for democracy in Bhutan. He was among those refugee leaders credited with lobbying for raising awareness about the plight of nearly 100,000 Bhutanese refugees living in seven camps in Nepal.

"Though, we've lost an important member of the movement, we will not end our struggle," says SB Subba, president of the Bhutan Refugees Repatriation Representative Committee. "There's a certain amount of insecurity prevailing at the moment, but the situation in the camps is peaceful."