by Shusham Shrestha
LELE, Nepal, Aug 24 (AFP) - In a humble house on a gravelly road in this village in Nepal's hills, the family of 19-year-old Ramesh Khadka is wondering why an Islamic militant group in faraway Iraq allegedly holds him hostage.
Ramesh's father, 55-year-old Jit Bahadur Khadka, holds onto a picture posted on an Islamist website and repeatedly reproduced in Nepalese newspapers that shows his son demurely holding his passport in front of the militants' banner.
"All we can do is pray for his safety and his safe return," said the father, who was in tears.
Nepal's government has appealed for the release of the 12 Nepalese allegedly abducted but says it has no independent information on their whereabouts.
Ramesh is among four sons and a daughter of the family, which survives in this town outlying the capital Kathmandu by selling milk to the local dairy.
Jit Bahadur Khadka said the family had taken out a loan of 150,000 rupees -- which is over 2,000 dollars -- in belief that his son was heading to Jordan.
The sum is a fortune in Nepal, one of the world's poorest countries engulfed by a Maoist uprising seeking to overthrow the monarchy.
"Since things are not very good in Nepal either, why not go abroad to make some money, was his argument," the father said.
In Amman, Haytham Mohammad, assistant manager of the Morning Star employment agency, said the Nepalese were hired to work there but like "everyone who comes to Jordan", they heard of jobs in Iraq "where there are a lot of offers of high salaries" and decided to try their luck.
"I don't understand why and how Ramesh got into Iraq in the first place," said his 23-year-old brother Sudarshan Khadka.
"His employment company in Kathmandu had said he would be going to Jordan for work as a cook at a hotel in Amman as he had trained as a cook in Kathmandu," he said.
"His employment company in Nepal had said he would be able to earn at least 400 dollars a month," the brother said.
He said the family last heard from Ramesh a month ago when he called and said he had not found work yet in Jordan.
"He is not even politically motivated let alone helping a foreign country's army in a foreign land," Sudarshan Khadka added.
An Islamist militant group, Army of Ansar al-Sunna, claimed to have abducted 12 Nepalese for cooperating with US forces in Iraq.
Neighbouring villager Sudarshan Dottel, 56, said: "We are really surprised by the charges against the Nepalese abducted in Iraq."
"They had gone to work in Jordan as cooks at a hotel. I think they have been framed," Dottel said.
Bishnu Khadka, Ramesh's 16-year-old sister, said the family first heard about his situation watching television Sunday evening.
Ramesh's father said officials at the finance and foreign ministries had assured them of doing all they could on the situation.
The foreign ministry said Monday that Nepal's minister of state for foreign affairs, Prakash Sharan Mahat, had spoken to Arabic satellite television network Al-Jazeera to stress that Nepal was not part of the US-led coalition in Iraq.
Nepal declined US requests to send troops to Iraq, saying its army had its hands full with the Maoists.
Some 10,000 people have died in Nepal's insurgency since 1996.