New York mother-daughter Rekha and Rashi are missing in Nepal. (Photo: CNN/Shekhar Agarwal)
Agarwal last spoke to them on Wednesday 7.30 am (local time).
Agarwal said as far as he knew, the mother-daughter had spent a few days in Kathmandu to acclimate to the higher altitude of the Himalayas, before continuing north toward the Chinese border with the tour group. They said they were planning to go the immigration checkpoint around noon that day before crossing into Tibet. “After that, there was radio silence, nothing, no contact whatsoever,” Agrawal said. “Whatever (phone) numbers the internet or television or friends are giving us, we are trying to contact them,” Agrawal said.
He thinks the mother and daughter may have still been in their hotel at the time. Many numbers provided for those seeking information about loved ones didn’t even work; and the ones that did work had no information to offer.
Agarwal said the situation makes him feel helplessand he can’t do much apart from hoping that his sister and niece are probably safe somewhere. “We are hoping for the best because these kinds of things have happened earlier also, and we have seen cases where people have walked after three days, four days, five days,” Agarwal said. “Right now, the only thing that you can do is be hopeful.”