As nearly 4,000 people remain missing after Nepal’s deadly flash floods, families hold symbolic funerals to free the souls of loved ones they cannot find.
Krishna Khadka mourns next to the body of his 21-year-old son Aayush Khadka, who lost his life during the deadly flash floods and a mudslide, before his cremation at the cremation ground in Chitwan, Nepal, on August 31, 2026. (Photo: REUTERS/Adnan Abidi)
02 Sep 2026 01:09AM
(Updated: 02 Sep 2026 06:59PM)
KATHMANDU: After days of searching shelters and morgues, many Nepali families held symbolic funeral ceremonies on Tuesday (Sep 1) to "liberate the souls" of loved ones missing since the deadly flash floods last week.Rozel Shrestha, 12, set fire to a tiny effigy made of straw and barley, representing his missing father, at Kathmandu's Pashupati temple on the banks of the Bagmati River.His father, 37-year-old Krishna Shrestha, was in the worst-hit Rasuwa district when the floods struck on Wednesday. He has been missing ever since."We searched everywhere, went to morgues across the country, but could not find his body," his brother Jeevan Shrestha told AFP.
