9-year-old girl who went missing at Thane market reunited with parents 2 days later

A nine-year-old girl, Safiya, who went for shopping in Thane market, got separated from her parents; the girl’s parents had told her that her grandmother had gone to her native place in a train; she thought a train would take her to her grandmother with whom she was much attached; the missing girl boarded a CST-bound local train and reached Dadar; the police found her in Dadar and took her to a Children’s Home in Matunga

A nine-year-old girl, Safiya, who went shopping in Thane market, got separated from her parents. The girl’s parents had told her that her grandmother had gone to her native place by train. She thought a train would take her to her grandmother with whom she was much attached.

Nine-year-old Safiya (centre) after being reunited with her parents. The girl had gone missing at Thane market and was reunited within two days. (HT PHOTO)

She boarded a CST-bound local train and reached Dadar. The police found her in Dadar and took her to a Children’s Home in Matunga. The Thane Child Protection Unit, which got the case of the missing girl, found her in two days and reunited her with her parents.

On the evening of July 23, Shaikh’s family realised that Safiya, who was with them shopping, was missing. Her father, Javed Shaikh, a resident of Wagale Estate in Thane, has four girls and two sons. Safiya is his third child. He had asked her to bring a mobile phone from her aunt who was on the other side of a shop when the family was shopping. Safiya, however, wandered off instead of reaching out to her aunt and reached Thane railway station.

Her aunt, Asma Shaikh, 30, said, “When her father came to me asking about her, we thought she must have wandered off looking at the shops nearby. We searched for her the entire night. However, we could not find her anywhere in the market. We went to the police station early in the morning to register a missing complaint.”

The complaint reached the Child Protection Unit (CPU), who found the girl within 24 hours. Asma said, “We got a video call from Safiya within a day and were relaxed. She has been staying with her grandmother since her childhood. When her grandmother went to her village, she used to miss her. Her parents told her that she went by train and would return when the train arrived. Safiya boarded a train in the hope that it would take her to her grandmother.”

S Khade, assistant police inspector, said, “After we came to know about the case, we immediately circulated her information to all our groups and through Matunga child care unit, we received information about a similar girl. We immediately made a video call and confirmed that the girl was the same and reunited her with her family.”