(Part 3/3) “They were maybe 40-50 of them in army fatigue. They had already surrounded the house. Somehow they were able to take him out of the house. I fought with them for almost 2 hours. I tried to stop them but at some point, I must have lost my senses and I do not remember what happened. I think he put on his clothes and left with the army men. I remember running after the vehicle calling at him and crying. I remember someone caught me and took me back inside my house. From that day, I have not heard from him. It has been 18 years. I know nothing. I have been searching for him until today. I have gone looking everywhere in the hope that I will find him. In the hope that I will know what happened. But no one knows of him, no one knows what happened to him.

After my husband was taken away things started getting bad at home. From a daughter-in-law, I became a woman who only bore girls. I became a woman who brought home bad luck. But for my girls, I endured. They have grown up now without a father. A long time has passed buy my wound has not healed. There is no peace. There is no forgetting. Until they tell me what happened to my husband I will not have peace in my heart. If he is not on this earth anymore, I would go and perform the last rites but no one tells me. They just say peace has arrived but it still has not stepped foot inside my house.”

Sangita Tharu, Barbadiya 5, Bardiya