One of the leaders of the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist), Matrika Yadav, and pro-Maoist student leader, Krishna KC, have called off their indefinite hunger strike at Nakkhu prison in Lalitpur Monday, after discussions with senior human rights activists.

President of Human Rights Organisation of Nepal (HURON), Charan Prasain, told Nepalnews that Yadav and KC agreed to call off their six-day-long fast-unto-death strike after rights activists assured them of pursuing their demand for of pressurizing the government to disclose facts about all the `disappeared people’.

“Around 47 detainees have ‘disappeared’ after they were taken from the Bhairavnath battalion of the Royal Nepalese Army in Kathmandu for the last two years,” Prasain quoted KC as saying. KC was kept at the same battalion when the said incident took place.

Prasain also quoted chief of the UN Office of High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) in Kathmandu, Ian Martin, as saying that he was concerned about reported cases of disappeared people in Nepal and that his office would take up the reported cases, including that of 47 detainees, with HMG/Nepal.

The authorities are yet to respond to KC’s allegations. They, however, say the government treats all the people in custody in accordance with law.

Yadav and KC had also demanded that a public-level probe commission be forced to look into the cases of disappeared, he added.

A citizen’s committee led by senior advocate Basudev Prasad Dhungana is already working in this regard.

Besides Prasain of HURON, president of Informal Sector Service Center (INSEC) Subodh Raj Pyakurel, Prof. Mathura P. Shrestha, Sindhunath Paykurel and other rights activists were also present on the occasion when Yadav and KC duo decided to call off their hunger strike.

According to HURON, out of nearly 600 people reported as disappeared after they were allegedly taken into custody by security forces, the authorities have made condition of only 130 people public so far.