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.