Hence, further explanations should be sought in such cases.<h4>Case presentation</h4>Our case report exemplifies the presence of an alpha thalassemia trait along with HbJ in a symptomatic case of anemia from rural Nepal.<h4>Discussion</h4>CE-HPLC complemented by electrophoresis, is the method of choice for characterizing various hemoglobin variants including Hb J. Hb J presents as elevated P3 peak on HPLC while thalassemia is detected by the presence of eluted proteins at the retention time between 0 and 1 minutes. Here, GSTM1 is linked to anemia.