Journalist Chandra Giri has been missing for more than two weeks

Journalist Chandra Giri, of the privately-owned weekly Shram has not been seen for more than two weeks, since his disappearance on 30 December 2004 and no group has admitted to having kidnapped him. Two days earlier members of the security forces abducted Sitaram Parajuli the editor of the same Kathmandu-based newspaper, before releasing him on 9 January 2005. After the abduction of Parajuli, Reporters Without Borders voiced its deep concern about Giri's plight. "This journalist must be found as quickly as possible," it said in a letter to Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba. "We call on you to see there is a thorough investigation to find and punish the kidnappers". Giri, who is 23, went missing minutes after visiting the editor of the weekly Samay, Yubaraj Ghimire in Hariharbhawan close to the capital, to inform him about the arrest of Parajuli. Two people accompanying him, fellow journalist Janmadev Jaishi and Parajuli's younger brother, told Reporters Without Borders they did not know what had happened at the time of his disappearance. After several hours with no news, his family and colleagues concluded that he had been kidnapped but they did not know by whom or anything of his whereabouts. Shram and the Kathmandu branch of the Federation of Nepalese Journalists (FNJ) nevertheless suspect that the security forces were behind the abduction. Giri, also works for the weeklies Halchal and Economic Post, both published in Kathmandu.