Indian Woman Missing Since 20 Years Found in Pakistan

A woman from Mumbai who went missing 20 years ago after travelling abroad for work has been found in Pakistan

In an extremely shocking and surprising incident a woman from Mumbai who went missing 20 years ago after traveling abroad for work has been found in Pakistan with the help of social media. Hamida Bano who is now 70 years old, and used to live in Hyderabad city of Pakistan, managed to get in touch with her family in Kurla suburban of Mumbai recently after she left the city in 2002 to work as a house help in  Dubai.

According to the woman's family, Waliullah Maroof, an activist in Pakistan, met Ms. Bano and told him how an agent in Mumbai cheated her with a promise of work in Dubai 20 years ago and she had landed in the neighboring country Pakistan instead. Ms. Bano started living in Hyderabad, Pakistan and subsequently got married to a local man, with whom she had a child. But her husband later died.  On hearing her story and her urge to go back home, Mr. Maroof uploaded Ms. Bano's video on his YouTube channel and looked for a social activist in Mumbai who could help him and eventually found one named Khaflan Shaikh.

Mr Shaikh then circulated the video to his local group and tracked down Ms. Bano's daughter Yasmeen Bashir Shaikh, who lives in the Kasaiwada area of Kurla in Mumbai. My mother had gone to Dubai to work as a cook. She often used to go to Qatar for two-four years but this time she had gone with the help of an agent and never came back. We tried looking for her but all the efforts went in vain as we could not even file a complaint as we had no evidence," Yasmin Sheikh, Hamida’s daughter, said. Yasmin further said whenever they tried to ask the agent about her mother's whereabouts, he always used to say that “my mother did not want to meet or talk to us and assured us that she was doing well”."It was only after the video came and reached us that we came to know about her living in Pakistan, else we did not know if she was in Dubai, Saudi or somewhere else"

however, Hamida in her video, clearly said that the agent had told her not to disclose the truth to anybody In the past, Ms. Bano had traveled to Qatar, too, to work as a house help, she said. "We are happy that our mother is alive and safe. We now want the Indian government to help us bring her back,'' Yasmeen Bashir Shaikh said. The family plans to approach the Pakistan High Commission to bring the old lady back home to India safely.

What do you think about this extremely shocking incident? Do mention your thoughts in the comment section below.

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