Mysterious disappearance: 70-year-old Karachi resident goes missing at Delhi airport
Indian authorities have shown CCTV footage of a man ordering Nabi to step behind a bus.
Muhammad Nabi, 70, went missing from Delhi airport on Monday afternoon. PHOTO COURTESY: FAMILY
KARACHI:
A 70-year-old Pakistani who went to Delhi to meet his relatives earlier this week has gone missing, claimed his family.
Elderly Muhammad Nabi, who hails from Karachi, travelled to Delhi by PK-272 on Monday afternoon. After clearing immigration, the man stepped out from the airport but was nowhere to be found by his nephews and grandchildren, who came to the airport to receive him.
A missing report has been lodged at a police station near the Indira Gandhi International Airport by his relatives. Speaking to The Express Tribune from Delhi, Muhammad Aziz said the police have yet to find the whereabouts of his uncle. “We are very worried as we have no idea who took him and where he is.”
The Indian police have showed Aziz CCTV footage of the area outside the airport and it clearly shows an unidentified man gesturing Muhammad Nabi to step behind a bus. “We don’t know if he got on the bus or went somewhere else,” said a worried Aziz. “He doesn’t know anyone here except us.”
Since the family lives in Muradabad, it took them some time to reach the airport and locate the gates. “We had told our uncle to wait for us and call us when he gets here,” Aziz recalled. “But neither did we receive a phone call from him nor did we find him waiting.” Here in Karachi, Muhammad Nabi’s only child, Meena Aisha is frantically reaching out to the authorities and activists for help. “My father is old,” she cried at her house in New Karachi. “He is innocent and has no enmity with anyone.” According to her, this was her father’s third visit to India.
Muhammad Nabi had previously visited the country in the 1970s. He is a retired government employee, she added. “He wanted to meet his nephews and offer prayers at his brother’s grave as he died 10 years ago,” she explained, adding that Muhammad Nabi was scheduled to return home within a month.
Aisha, who condemned her father’s disappearance, demanded her father be recovered immediately and urged the Pakistani government to take up this matter with the Indians, and make sure that he is safe and sound. Meanwhile, social activist Ansar Burney, who is also looking into the matter, told The Express Tribune that he has written a letter to India’s home department on the missing resident.
“We have expressed our concern over the disappearance of the elderly man,” said Burney, who added that over the years, Pakistanis go missing in India and then after months they are found languishing in jails across India.
If Muhammad Nabi has committed any crime then the Indian authorities should come forth and declared it, he said, adding that they shouldn’t stay quiet on the disappearance. The Indian officials have yet to get back to him on the matter, he added.
Published in The Express Tribune, July 6th, 2013.
A 70-year-old Pakistani who went to Delhi to meet his relatives earlier this week has gone missing, claimed his family.
Elderly Muhammad Nabi, who hails from Karachi, travelled to Delhi by PK-272 on Monday afternoon. After clearing immigration, the man stepped out from the airport but was nowhere to be found by his nephews and grandchildren, who came to the airport to receive him.
A missing report has been lodged at a police station near the Indira Gandhi International Airport by his relatives. Speaking to The Express Tribune from Delhi, Muhammad Aziz said the police have yet to find the whereabouts of his uncle. “We are very worried as we have no idea who took him and where he is.”
The Indian police have showed Aziz CCTV footage of the area outside the airport and it clearly shows an unidentified man gesturing Muhammad Nabi to step behind a bus. “We don’t know if he got on the bus or went somewhere else,” said a worried Aziz. “He doesn’t know anyone here except us.”
Since the family lives in Muradabad, it took them some time to reach the airport and locate the gates. “We had told our uncle to wait for us and call us when he gets here,” Aziz recalled. “But neither did we receive a phone call from him nor did we find him waiting.” Here in Karachi, Muhammad Nabi’s only child, Meena Aisha is frantically reaching out to the authorities and activists for help. “My father is old,” she cried at her house in New Karachi. “He is innocent and has no enmity with anyone.” According to her, this was her father’s third visit to India.
Muhammad Nabi had previously visited the country in the 1970s. He is a retired government employee, she added. “He wanted to meet his nephews and offer prayers at his brother’s grave as he died 10 years ago,” she explained, adding that Muhammad Nabi was scheduled to return home within a month.
Aisha, who condemned her father’s disappearance, demanded her father be recovered immediately and urged the Pakistani government to take up this matter with the Indians, and make sure that he is safe and sound. Meanwhile, social activist Ansar Burney, who is also looking into the matter, told The Express Tribune that he has written a letter to India’s home department on the missing resident.
“We have expressed our concern over the disappearance of the elderly man,” said Burney, who added that over the years, Pakistanis go missing in India and then after months they are found languishing in jails across India.
If Muhammad Nabi has committed any crime then the Indian authorities should come forth and declared it, he said, adding that they shouldn’t stay quiet on the disappearance. The Indian officials have yet to get back to him on the matter, he added.
Published in The Express Tribune, July 6th, 2013.