Foreign Minister Dr Arzu Rana Deuba has urged the Qatari government to mediate for the safe release of Nepali student Bipin Joshi.
Minister Rana on Tuesday morning telephoned the Qatar's Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, Dr Mohammed bin Abdulaziz al-Khulaifi, requesting the latter to mediate for the safe release of Joshi. State Minister Khulaifi is the chief mediator for the peace talks between Hamas and Israel, representing Qatar.
"I talked to the Minister of State of Qatar for Foreign Affairs, Dr Mohammed Abdul Laziz Al Khulaifi over the telephone this morning, requesting the latter for the safe release of Bipin Joshi," Minister Rana mentioned on X.
Rana has shared to have appealed to the Qatar's State Minister Khulaifi to include Joshi in the list of among those kidnapped while negotiating the peace talks between Hamas and Israel. Hamas has recently made public the list of 34 Israelis kidnapped from Israel on October 7, 2023. However, Bipin Joshi does not exist in the list.
This diplomatic step for the release of Bipin by the Foreign Ministry takes place at a time when negations for a ceasefire between belligerent Israel and Hamas are reportedly heading toward the positive direction. Qatar has been trying to mediate a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas.
In response, Qatar's State Minister Khulaifi assured her that he would raise Bipin's release saying that Qatar accords top priority to relations with Nepal, Minister Rana said.
Earlier, at a press conference organized in Kathmandu, Israeli Ambassador to Nepal, Shmulik Arie Bass, said that Bipin Joshi was alive in the Gaza Strip and he would soon return to Nepal.
Ambassador Bass said that 96 people, including Bipin, are still under Hamas control and efforts are being made to release them.
As many as 49 students studying in the final year of the Faculty of Agriculture Science at Far Western University had reached Israel under the ‘Learning and Earning’ program. Of them, 10 Nepali students lost their lives in an attack by the Palestinian militant group Hamas on October 7, 2023.
On the same day, Bipin was said to have been taken hostage by Hamas from Israel’s Kibbutz Alumim and taken to the Gaza Strip. Out of 251 people, who were taken hostage and whisked to the Gaza Strip, 105 have been released between the two ceasefires. Eight people were rescued by the Israeli army. So far, the bodies of 34 of the hostages have been found in the Gaza Strip.
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