Mumbai woman missing for 20 years found in Pakistan
We may criticize social media for the negativity it brings, but we cannot ignore it, for it has numerous positive impacts. Picture this: A 70-year-old Mumbai-based woman who went missing 20 years ago after traveling abroad for work has been found alive and well in Pakistan. Thanks to social media, Hamida Bano, living in Hyderabad in Pakistan's Sindh province, could reconnect with her family.
Bano, whose family lives in Mumbai's suburban Kurla area, left the city in 2002 to work as a domestic help in Dubai. According to her family, she met an activist in Pakistan named Waliullah Maroof and told him how an agent promised her employment in Dubai 20 years ago but cheated her and she landed in Pakistan instead.
Bano had made Hyderabad her home and later got married to a local man with whom she has a child. However, her husband passed away. Bano told Maroof about her longing to get reunited with her family, and moved by her story, he shared a video on his YouTube channel explaining her situation. This real-life Bajrangi Bhaijaan also looked for a Mumbai-based social activist.
Fortunately, they landed contact with an activist from Mumbai, Khaflan Shaikh, who shared the video in his local circle. With the help of that video, they tracked down Bano's daughter Yasmeen Bashir Shaikh who lives in Kurla's Kasaiwada area. "My mother left India in 2002 for Dubai for work through an agent. However, because of the agent's negligence, she landed in Pakistan," said Shaikh.
"We were unaware of her whereabouts and could get in touch with her only once through the same agent," Bano's daughter added. According to her, Bano had also traveled to Qatar in the past to work as a house help. "We are happy that our mother is alive and safe. We now want the Indian government to help us bring her back,'' said Shaikh.
Shaikh spoke to her mother for the first time in two decades. Now, the family is planning to approach the Pakistan High Commission to bring Bano back to India and her home, safely.
