PHA-Exchange> More about Dr. Mahesh, Shyam, Pramod - abducted by the army.

[Mathura P Shrestha]

PM promised to release them before he would fly for a India visit. But they
are not released as of now.

After the pressure from civil society Madhav Kumar Nepal, Leader of
Opposition Parties and General Secretary of CPN UML was allowed to see them
in an undisclosed place on the condition that the place and the content of
the talks would not be made public. Initially Mr. Nepal insisted that family
members rather than him should be the ones to be allowed to see them. As
this was not possible in spite of the several requests to PM and the defense
secretary by several civil societies and personalities Mr. Nepal agreed to
see them on the request of family members and civil societies. According to
the family sources Mr. Nepal telephoned family members of each of them
separately and conveyed that they were healthy and 'well kept'. According to
him they were to be released on the same day (that is yesterday). He is
hopeful that they will be released at least today. He also expressed that if
they will not be released today Army will not take any action before the
return of PM.

We tried to contact Mr. Nepal to know about the place and the contents of
the dialogue with them. So far we not able to contact him. All left
political parties, and some prominent leaders including Members of
Parliament of Nepali Congress have univocally protested the abduction/arrest
and demanded immediate release.

Mathura P. Shrestha.