A child who went missing from Batagram district in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa 21 years ago has finally been found in Karachi.
The missing person’s family was traced through the efforts of well-known social worker Maulana Waliullah Maroof.
A day earlier, Maulana Waliullah Maroof had shared a post on his Facebook page seeking information about Zahid’s relatives, which eventually helped locate the family.
According to him, all documentary and verification procedures have been completed, including the FIR and other relevant documents, and the identifying details have been confirmed as accurate.
Interestingly, Zahid’s family also lives in Karachi, while he himself had been residing in the same city, although neither side was aware of the other’s presence.
Maulana Waliullah Maroof explained that Zahid was only six or seven years old when he went missing in 2005. He had gone to graze goats with his sister but became separated from her on the way back and lost his way.
During that time, a man approached him on the pretext of helping him return home and instead took him away by train to another city. Zahid was later kept confined in a house, but he managed to escape two days later when he found an opportunity.
According to Zahid, after his escape a man tried for some time to locate his family, but when those efforts failed he was left at a shelter home in Multan. Records show that Zahid was admitted to the shelter on 22 November 2005. From there he was later transferred to another shelter in a different city, where he spent nearly two decades.
During this period Zahid endured extremely difficult circumstances.
He has only recently managed to secure a place to stay, where he was given work for a monthly wage of six thousand rupees. While he could remember the names of his family members, he was unable to recall the exact name of his town or area.
