From Satkhira to Sialkot: Missing woman returns home from Pakistan after 41 years
Aklima’s return has created an emotional environment not only in the family but in the whole village
Md Zakir Sheikh was surprised to hear the names of his late grandfather and father in a video posted by a Pakistani citizen in a Jashore based Facebook group around five months ago.
The video showed an elderly woman from Sialkot, a city in Pakistan's Punjab province, emotionally urging viewers in Bangla to help her find her family members back in Bangladesh.
After showing the video to his family members, Zakir became sure the woman was his paternal aunt Aklima Begum, who mysteriously disappeared from home four decades ago.
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They contacted Aklima on a video call and invited her to come back home as soon as possible.
At last, on 10 November, Aklima, now in her mid-sixties, returned home to the Gangarumpur village of Tala upazila, Satkhira, with a son by her Pakistani husband.
"After recognising her as my missing aunt, we were in regular contact on Facebook. Finally, with the help of the Bangladesh and Pakistan embassies, we brought her back home," said Zakir, son of late Makbul Sheikh, Aklima's elder brother.
Aklima's return has created an emotional environment not only in the family but in the whole village. Many people are coming to see her every day and asking about her whereabouts.
However, it is still a mystery how she went to Pakistan from a remote village of Satkhira. Even Aklima cannot recall it.
"I have no memory of that. However, I am extremely happy to return to my family," she told The Business Standard.
Her family members say she had become mentally unstable after the death of her husband in the late 1970s at a very young age. In 1981, she disappeared suddenly leaving her three children behind.
Ibrahim Sheikh, younger brother of Aklima, said, "At that time we were very poor. My sister almost went mad after her husband's death. We do not know how she reached Pakistan."
However, Zakir said, quoting Aklima, that she stayed at a shelter home in her early days in Pakistan.
"There she met a person named Muhammad Siddique and they later got married. Muhammad Siddique died a few years ago. Now, she has two sons and two daughters living in the Dalowali area of Sialkot," said Zakir.
Zakir said her family members in Sialkot recorded a video message and posted it on Facebook when she wished to visit her motherland one last last time before she dies.
"However, her son with her first husband works in a factory in Dhaka and the two daughters are living in the neighbouring areas at their in-law's houses," he added.
