Police arrested at least 11 persons, who were carrying out dharna (sit-in protest) at the premises of the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) demanding that the rights body pressure the government to reveal the whereabouts of involuntarily disappeared persons, Sunday evening.

Police intervened into the dharna at around 10:15 p.m., dragging the protesters out of the NHRC premises and whisking them in police vans. Police also beat up some of the protesters after they refused to court arrest, participants of the protest told reporters.

Janma Dev Jaisi, Rajmati Maharjan and Gyan Prakash Rai were along those arrested. It is not known where the arrested persons have been kept.

Family members and relatives of persons who have gone missing after being arrested by security forces on different dates have been carrying out dharna at the NHRC premises since last few days, demanding that the government immediately make public the condition of the missing persons.

In the afternoon, NHRC chairman Nayan Bahadur Khatri told a press conference that the protesters had been creating ‘disturbance’ in the activities of the commission.

Even as the government has periodically publicized the whereabouts of over 500 involuntarily missing persons, human rights groups believe there are still hundreds of others detained incommunicado in government’s detention centers.