As the two men did not come back home for three or four days, their father with other three people from the IDP camp started to look for them.
On 12 December 2012, Swan Kha Naw Gyar and his brother, Swan Kha Gan Phan, had gone to Palaung Dain Sar village from an Internally Displaced Persons’ (IDP) Camp, to look after the plants. They had moved to the camp because of fighting between government forces and the Kachin Independence Army (KIA). The two men are civilians. Swan Kha Naw Gyar has a family with three children to take care of.
As the two men did not come back home for three or four days, their father with other three people from the IDP camp started to look for them. They found their belongings such as clothes and the food they carried on Bwan Kyaw Mountain, four miles from the village. According to the evidence on the ground, including prints left by boots and other features, they appear to have been taken into custody by government troops based in the area.
They searched the places where the two men might go but found nothing. Therefore, a group from the IDP camp complained to Major Kyaw Thu Win on 20 December 2012. Major Kyaw Thu Win said there were two columns in the area that day, and that they disappeared when the battalions went to the frontline. So he said that he supposed that the units had taken the two men as guides. He assumed he that they would send information later and bring them back home after some time.
Three days later, they went to meet Major Kyaw Thu Win again to get information but he said the battalions had not returned and he would ask them after they arrived. He also wanted them to make inquiries with other battalions as well. Thus, the family members tried to go to the places where they assumed the military might have arrested the two men but until now they could not get any information at all.