They built lives on land that was never theirs. Now they have nothing

It was around 5pm on Sunday. A steady pre-monsoon downpour had flooded the ground at the Dasharath Stadium. Scattered belongings lay soaked in the rain. Faces in the crowd looked drained, uncertain, and defeated. Among them sat 53-year-old Pakcha Tarim Kasai, drenched but unmoving. The rain did little to mask the exhaustion etched across his face. It was not just age. It was the hollow look of a man who had lost everything within hours. When bulldozers moved into the riverside settlement in Thapathali on Saturday, Kasai did not just lose his shelter. In the chaos, he was separated from his wife. He had reached the stadium that evening. Around 9pm, municipal officials began moving displaced families to temporary accommodation in Balaju. As he was being ushered into a vehicle, Kasai realised his wife, Pushpa, was nowhere to be seen. He panicked. He searched, asking nearby police officers. They told him she would be located and sent to him. Standing at the vehicle door, he hesitated, asking repeatedly how he could leave without her. Eventually, he was persuaded to board. At a hotel in Balaju, he waited through the night, staring at the door, hoping she would walk in. She did not. He pleaded with police and hotel staff for information. Hours later, someone informed him that she had been taken to a different hotel. “How do you hold yourself together in a moment like that without hearing your wife’s voice?” he said, recalling the night. The couple do not own a mobile phone.