A Nepalese radio journalist was abducted on Wednesday, reportedly over his coverage of a land dispute. Keshav Bohara, a journalist working with Radio Mandavi in Nepal’s Mid-Western Pyuthan district, was abducted by unknown persons.

According to IPI member and IPI National Committee General Secretary Taranath Dahal, Bohara had been reporting extensively on a dispute centered around land owned by the Swargadari Temple trust.  Bohara reportedly said in a radio broadcast that the Unified Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) had captured the land during their conflict with government forces. Bohara claimed that the UCPN (Maoist) had failed to return the land to the trust after the conflict ended in 2009.

According to Dahal, Bohara had been receiving threatening phone calls recently over his coverage of the issue.

According to information from the Freedom Forum’s Nepal Charter, Bohara or his abductors telephoned Deepak Bhandari, the secretary of the Federation of Nepalese Journalists (FNJ), Pyuthan, on Wednesday afternoon. Bhandari reportedly heard Bohara shouting for help on the phone, as he believed that he was at risk of being murdered.

Police investigations are ongoing.

Members of the journalistic community in Nepal have constituted a five-member mission to investigate the case.

“We are deeply concerned for the safety of Keshav Bohara,” said IPI Press Freedom Manager Anthony Mills. “We call on the authorities to do all they can to secure his safe release and to bring the perpetrators justice.”