‘If the government can’t find him, let me’: A wife searches for three missing relatives

For eight days, Sabina KC has stood before rows of photographs at Tribhuvan University Teaching Hospital, looking for the faces of three members of her family. Her husband, Sohit BK, her 23-year-old brother-in-law Amar BK and their uncle Narayan BK have all disappeared.

Sabina came to Kathmandu’s hospital while leaving her infant with a neighbor. Her other child, five years old, suffers seizures and sometimes loses consciousness. With her mother-in-law and the wife of her missing brother-in-law both abroad, Sabina has been left to wait, worry and search largely on her own.

The family is originally from Surkhet. Sohit worked as a driver transporting goods from China, and he and Narayan had gone to Syabrubesi for work. On August 26, at about 6 a.m., they left together. They had barely reached Ronga when a flood swept through the area.

Three nearby people ran as the flood approached. One survived and later reached an area above Syabrubesi. He told Sabina that he had seen Sohit and Narayan running toward the forest. Those words now sustain her hope that they may still be alive and somewhere beyond the photographs on the hospital wall.

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Your husband and uncle ran towards the forest. I saw them running as the flood was coming.