KATHMANDU — Twenty-two U.S. citizens are among an 80-member group associated with the Isha Foundation that remains unaccounted for after flash floods struck near the Nepal-Tibet border on August 

The group, traveling with Isha Sacred Walks, also includes 12 from Canada.

An Instagram post by Dallas resident Akash Mahtani said his parents, Deepak Ahuja and Madhu Ahuja, both U.S. citizens, were among those unaccounted for. It is learned the couple made the pilgrimage in celebration of Deepak Ahuja turning 60.

According to Mahtani, the couple was traveling with Isha Sacred Walks and the organization had confirmed that they were at the Gyirong immigration facility when the flood struck. He appealed to people with contacts in Nepal, Gyirong or Tibet, including hospitals, rescue teams, government authorities and local media, for any information about their whereabouts.

Spiritual leader Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev, founder of the Isha Foundation, said information available to him indicated that the group was inside the immigration building when the flooding occurred.

Sadhguru, who is currently in Saga, Tibet, said he received a message at 9:05 a.m. August 26 from Ishanga Praveen, the group leader and a full-time Isha Foundation volunteer who has been associated with the organization for more than two decades. Praveen’s message indicated that the group had reached the immigration facility. Sadhguru said Praveen’s Nepal phone never became active after that, suggesting the group had not proceeded beyond the facility. “So literally the entire group was there in the building,” he said.

“The same building where we were for the immigration just a week ago, that entire building is washed away, and part of the town is washed away,” he said.

The group consists of 34 men and 46 women. Three volunteers and a doctor were also traveling with the group, while several other volunteers were staying at nearby hotels. Other than US and Canada, 11 were from Australia, nine from the United Kingdom, four from Germany, three each from France and Nepal, two each from the Netherlands, New Zealand, Singapore and Spain, and one each from Finland, Hungary, Israel, Lithuania, the Philippines, Portugal, Russia and South Africa.

Sadhguru said embassies representing countries whose citizens were in the group had been informed in India and Nepal about the situation and the lack of information.

@India-West  News Desk