Nepali man serving in Russian Army killed

By Our Correspondent,Waling, Nov. 30: Pitam Karki of Putlibazar Municipality-5 in Syangja district, who served in the Nepali Army for 17 years, had reached Afghanistan for employment. After staying there for a year, he returned to Nepal in July last year. 

But he didn’t stay here. He renewed his passport and went to Russia to find a job. 

Santos Regmi, acting ward chairman of Putlibazar-5, said that he might have returned to Nepal after preparing to go to Russia. However, he did not tell anyone including his family members about this. 

Pitam’s cousin, Rajesh Karki, said that he stayed at home for 20 days after returning from Afghanistan. “It seems that he had come home to go to Russia but he didn’t say anything about his next move then. We guessed about it after he left home for Russia,” he said. 

The family is in unbearable pain for not even being able to see the face of Pitam in the end. His wife is in a semi-conscious state, while the aged father and mother have also fainted multiple times, said Rajesh.

The ward office had informed the family about Pitam’s death after receiving notification from the Consular Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MoFA) of Nepal. 

On the day of the incident – November 15, Pitam was in contact with the family until midnight and said that he was still at the training centre and that his condition was normal. 

He had also assured his family that there is no need to be afraid since there was no risk inside the camp. Later, we came to know that he was killed after a while, said Rajesh. 

Pitam’s father, Hari Bahadur, had then insisted that his son should do some work in Nepal after taking retirement from the Nepali Army, but after the young man decided to fly abroad to find a better job, the family had nothing to say. 

According to the family, they got the information about this incident only on November 24, ten days after the incident.

He left his father, mother, wife and two sons at home and went to Russia. Pritam was the only son of the family. His sons are studying in class five and nursery. Hari Bahadur had also served in the Nepal Police. 

Meanwhile, Minister for Foreign Affairs, NP Saud, had met the parents of Bipin Joshi, a Nepali student that went missing on the day Hamas – a Palestinian rebel group – attacked on Israel on October 7. 

The Minister met Joshi’s parents on Wednesday in Mahendranagar, Kanchanpur district, informed the MoFA in a statement.  

FM Saud is embarking on a visit of Qatar to participate in Doha 21 Forum, and take initiative to seek help of the Gulf state in Joshi’s release. Qatar is brokering the deal between Israel and Hamas for the release of the hostages.