Children going missing is a routine in Seemapuri streets, say residents

Several families in the narrow street have such stories to narrate. Some were lucky to find their children while others have found a new hope through Sonu’s case.

Every week, at least two to three times, the loudspeaker of the Mohammadi Masjid in east Delhi’s New Seemapuri blares with announcements of a missing child.

Asim, in photo, went missing from his home in New Seemapuri a year back. (Saumya Khandelwal/Hindustan Times)

“The lanes here are so narrow that children often are not able to identify their houses and reach home. Though in most cases children are found, but in many others they are not tracked. We make such announcements in the mosque for the sake of humanity. A little help might help a family find their child,” said Mohammad Rafik, imam, Mohammadi Masjid.

Sonu(13) who returned on Thursday after six years, is a resident of the area.

“Hindu or Muslim, if we get a case of some child missing we do everything we can to help the family trace them,” he said.

On Thursday, fifty one-year-old Bilkiz Banu peeped through the crowd that had gathered to welcome 12-year-old Sonu, who went missing from their neighbourhood and was traced six years later in Bangladesh, with teary eyes. Unlike Sonu’s parents, she is not lucky.

Read: Kidnapped Indian boy returns from Bangladesh after 6 years

She held an A4 size picture of her stepson, Asim, who went missing a year ago. Sonu’s return has sparked some hope.

“It has been one year and three months now since my son Asim had gone missing. After my husband and his second wife died, Asim was my responsibility and the fact that I could not take care of him haunts me every day,” Banu said.

Asim had also gone missing when he had gone out to play on May 27, last year.

Several families in the narrow street have such stories to narrate. Some were lucky to find their children while others have found a new hope through Sonu’s case.