Dubai: Can anyone help these NRI sisters trace their mother?

January 11, 2016

Hyderabad, Jan 11: Two sisters from Dubai made an unusual request on Saturday when they called on V Satyanarayana, deputy commissioner of Hyderabad Police’s south zone. Could the police help them find their mother, whom they hadn’t met for 27 years? The only lead they could provide the officer was a faded photograph and an Indian passport, issued in 1981 and barely legible.

DubaiAyesha and Fatima, 33 and 32, last saw their mother when their father divorced her in 1988 and sent her back to Hyderabad, her hometown. They said they knew nothing else about her, because their father while alive had allegedly forbidden them to talk about her.

Their father Rasheed Obaid Masmary, a Dubai businessman, had married their mother Razia Sayeed in 1981, the marriage arranged by brokers. Rasheed arranged for his bride’s passport, issued by the erstwhile Madras Passport Office, and the couple settled in Dubai.

Ayesha was born a year after the marriage, Fatima the following year. After Rasheed divorced Razia in 1988, allegedly without legal proceedings, the daughters stayed with their father in Dubai. A couple of years later, Rasheed married a second time — the bride was again a Hyderabadi woman — and she settled with him in Dubai.

Ayesha and Fatima never saw their mother since 1988, when they were six and five, too young to remember much about her now. This is their first visit to Hyderabad. Their father never travelled here again although their stepmother would visit home sometimes. Rasheed died a few years ago, apparently without telling his two daughters who or where their mother was.

“Our father had cut off all contact with our mother and never told us anything about her,” said Ayesha. The sisters, fluent in Arabic, are communicating in broken English with people in Hyderabad.

“Except for a photo and a vague, almost illegible handwritten address on her passport, we know nothing about our mother. We don’t even know which part of Hyderabad she was from, or if she has any family here,” Ayesha said. “Our stepmother possibly knows about her but she has refused to tell us anything. We saw some posts on social media about the work done by Hyderabad police in tracing people, so we thought we will try too. Years have passed but we are hopeful we will get to meet her.”

Ayesha, who is married in Dubai, said her businessman husband supported her effort to search for their mother. The sisters flew to Hyderabad last week. They had made calls to police from Dubai earlier but, in the absence of local contacts, they could not make much headway. In Hyderabad, they came in touch with a local activist, Mohammed Abrar Sharif, who took them to the DCP.

The photo has been circulated among police stations. Police said they will try to trace the old address from the passport office in Chennai if those records are still available.

Comments

Naren kotian
 - 
Tuesday, 12 Jan 2016

result of contract marriages as per prefect manual :) hahaha ...pay 2 lakhs , marry 16 year old gal and stay with her for 2-3 months and later escape by giving talakh ... munchene sign bere ...shake bandre shake hand kottu airport nalle welcome maadi karkondu hogi hudugi na kottu madwe maadsi shake baby annistha idranthe howda ... hahahaha .. these saudis exploit innocent women from one particular community and sexcual abuse is very much high .. I have seen many ... papa hudugirna nodidre ayyo papa annisthade ...ummah gang help maadri ...

aharkul
 - 
Monday, 11 Jan 2016

Allahu Musta'an. Allah knows the best. We all pray for you sister to get your mother soon...

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News Network
April 29,2020

Dubai, Apr 29: Dubai on April 23 was a suicide, Dubai Police confirmed to Gulf News on Wednesday.

According to Dubai Police, he committed suicide by jumping from a building in Business Bay.

“We received a report about a man plunging to his death from the 14th floor of a friend's building on Thursday. The businessman committed suicide over financial problems,” Brigadier Abdullah Khadim Bin Sorour, director of Bur Dubai Police Station, told Gulf News.

Joy Arakkal receiving the Lifetime Achievement Award from Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan

The police ruled out any criminal suspicion behind the suicide and said they are coordinating with the businessman’s family for the repatriation of his body.

A UAE Gold Card visa recipient, Arakkal was the managing director of Dubai-headquartered Innova Group of Companies which had diverse businesses, with major focus in the oil sector. He is survived by his wife Celine and children, Arun and Ashly, who live in Jumeirah.

Consul General of India in Dubai Vipul confirmed to Gulf News that Arakkal’s family is set to fly home with his body after Indian authorities gives them special permission to travel in a chartered air ambulance.

“They have received the NOCs (No Objection Certificates) from India. We have taken it up with the UAE MoFAIC (Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation) for necessary permits from the UAE side,” Vipul said.

Once the approval is received, a chartered air ambulance will fly in from Bangalore to carry the family and the mortal remains of Arakkal.

Quiet embalming service

A few social workers and community leaders, who were coordinating with Arakkal’s family for the repatriation procedures, attended the embalming service was on Tuesday.

“Only the family members and a few of his employees were present apart from us,” said advocate Hashik T.K.

He said M.K. Raghavan, a member of Indian parliament from Kerala, and R. Harikumar of Elite Group in the UAE, offered great support for securing approvals from Indian authorities.

“We have been requesting the central and state governments to consider the emotional aspect of traditional funeral process in the case of expats who die abroad.”

He said almost two dozen bodies have been flown to India in the past few weeks on cargo flights. But, no family member was allowed to accompany the bodies so far.

Besides Arakkal’s family, the Indian government also issued immigration clearance for the family of a cancer patient from Nottingham, who is seeking treatment, to fly down to Calicut International Airport in Kerala.

Quarantine and funeral
On reaching Kerala, the family members would follow the quarantine procedures as per the government rules, Hashik said.

Arakkal’s’s funeral will be held in his hometown in Mananthavady in Wayanad district where he had built a 45,000sqfit mansion, one of the biggest houses in Kerala, last year.

“It is sad that he could stay in that house for a month or so only,” said a community member.

He said Arakkal had built houses for the poor and also funded the weddings of several young couples back home.

His companies include oil refineries, petrochemical trading, ISO tank cleaning services, shipping services and a telecom company working for infrastructure projects in the UAE.

He had received many awards including a lifetime achievement award from the Chief Minister of Kerala Pinarayi Vijayan during his visit to Dubai.

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