File photo: Damaged houses stand precariously near the swollen, debris-choked banks of the Trishuli River after flash floods in Nepal
DEHRADUN: Apart from searching for hundreds of people missing in the flash floods, Nepal’s police are facing another daunting task of tracing and securing missing vaults of at least 20 banks washed away in the deluge and preventing them from falling into the wrong hands. The development came after police in Dhading district arrested 29 people for allegedly stealing NPR 92 lakh from a washed-away vault from the Upper Rasuwa area. He added the vault had NPR 1.5 crore cash and other valuables, including gold worth NPR 50 crore. The police spokesperson further said the force has deployed 7,894 personnel in the ongoing rescue operations.
Some of these vaults contain huge amounts of cash and other valuables, officials told TOI Monday. DIG Abi Narayan Kafle said that amid the challenging post-flood situation, the force’s first priority is to look for those missing, but at the same time they need to maintain law and order in the affected areas. In another instance, police secured a vault of ‘Krishi Vikas Bank’, Nuwakot.
“On Sunday evening, our personnel managed to secure a vault of the Agricultural Development Bank’s Dhunge branch in Trishuli.