Abu Dhabi (Web Desk) – A 76-year-old man who left India and migrated to Pakistan nearly 50 years ago had an emotional reunion with his lost siblings in Abu Dhabi.
Hamza Sarkar, who is now settled in Pakistan with his wife and eight children, met with his brother TP Mammikutty, 75, and sister Eyyathu, 85, who are both from Kerala. He flew in to the reunion from Karachi while his siblings flew in from Kerala.
Sarkar had gone missing first time from Kerala in 1951 when he was 11 years old, Gulf News reported. “He was fond of travelling. One day our mother sent him out to graze the cattle. He never returned,” Mammikutty said.
Sarkar boarded a train to Kolkata. “From Kolkata I went to Bangladesh, which was then part of Pakistan. Later I went to Karachi,” Sarkar said.
After 18 years in Pakistan, he returned to his familu in 1968.
“I risked my life and slipped through the borders near Rajasthan in India. I walked for three weeks and finally took a bus to Hyderabad. I wrote a letter to my mother and she sent me money for a train ticket to Kerala,” Sarkar said.
In the hope that he will stay, Sarkar’s family set up a grocery shop for him but he ventured out again after nine months on the pretext of buying supplies and never returned.
“That was the last we saw him. I still remember how my mother used to keep his picture under her pillow and would cry all night,” his sister Eyyathu said.
Sarkar’s family traced him back to Karachi when his daughter Aasiya living in Pakistan and Mammikutty’s Abu Dhabi-based grandson Nadirshah, 23, connected on Facebook. “I never thought I would see my brother and sister in this lifetime. I have waited for this moment for so long and now I do not want to leave them and go to Pakistan,” Sarkar said.
