Helpless relatives search for ‘missing’ loved ones

Mukesh Ranjan

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, February 28

Grief and pain is writ large on the faces of the victims of Delhi riots, as they run from pillar to post to get some information about their loved ones who have been missing since Monday.

Anees Ahmad of Loni area waits anxiously outside the GTB Hospital’s mortuary to get some news about his brother-in-law Firoze Ahmad, who has been missing since the evening of February 24.

“For the past two days I have been requesting the officials in the hospital to let me identify the bodies. But, they did not allow me yesterday. Today, they have assured me to enter the mortuary,” he says, narrating his ordeal.

Speaking about Firoze, he says on the evening of February 24 Firoze made a call that he had taken shelter in a house in the Karawal Nagar area as the situation flared up. “Since then, I haven’t heard from him. His mobile phone is switched off. We have looked for him everywhere. There’s no help from the police,” he says.

Narrating a similar tale, mother of missing Mohshin (22) of Mustafabad Jajima says her son has not come back since February 25. “He was the only bread earner of the family of three. He worked at a shop in Chandni Chowk,” she says. His sister Shabnam says, “We have been making all possible efforts, but in vain.”