After 21 years, childhood picture, neighbour’s memory bring Ishrat home

Lost at five, Ishrat reunites with her family two decades later through Mera Pyara

LAHORE:

At least after 21 years apart, Ishrat, who went missing from her home in Hafizabad as a child, has been reunited with her family.

Ishrat, from a Christian family, was about five years old when she disappeared in 2005. Her relatives searched for her at the time, but were unable to locate her; her parents later died while the search continued.

For many years, Ishrat lived in Edhi homes. This year, teams from the Mera Pyara initiative located her at the Edhi Home in Lahore and recorded video interviews and collected childhood photographs. In those interviews, she gave a single concrete memory from her childhood that she came from Kaleke village and recalled a tomb near her childhood house. That detail became the only tangible lead the team had to work with.

Mera Pyara volunteers and investigators followed up in villages across Hafizabad and in neighbouring areas, including Sialkot and Wazirabad, but initial checks did not identify her family. The team then shared an older interview footage with her childhood pictures on social media to broaden the search.

A neighbour recognised Ishrat from the posted material and showed the video to a man who turned out to be her brother; he immediately identified her. After verification checks by Mera Pyara, Ishrat was handed over to her relatives.

A Safe City spokesman, Saif, described the case as another significant success for the Mera Pyara initiative, which the spokesman said has so far helped reunite more than 40,000 missing people with their families. He also urged citizens with information about missing persons to call 15 and press 3.

The reunion was completed after verification by the team and the necessary handover to family members. The published footage and the images of a small child, and later of the adult who had spent years in welfare homes, helped connect memory, community recognition and records to close a long-standing absence for one family.