Azamgarh youth returns after going missing for 50 days

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“We got a call today morning that my brother was in Kotila village, which is about three kilometres from our village Mirpur. There are people who know our family in that village, and somebody recognised him and called us. I went there and brought him home,” said Zakir’s brother, Mohammad Shahid.

“He was in a very bad condition, as if he hadn’t taken a bath in a month. His beard was unshaven and his clothes were very dirty…But when we asked him where he was all this while, he refused to answer. All he says is — ‘I will be picked up again, leave it, forget it’. He is in a state of shock. And whenever I get a call he gets very scared,” Shahid said, adding that Zakir had four stitches on his head and his passport and mobile were also not with him.

“He is shocked, something terrible has happened to him, but we don’t know it yet,” Shahid reiterated, while claiming that “Zakir was picked up”. When asked what he meant by that, he refused to elaborate.

The family that had lodged a ‘mission person’ complaint, said they had informed the police about Zakir’s return. “They asked us to get a CT scan done on Zakir and wait until he is better and is in a condition to record a statement,” Shahid said.

Meanwhile, Suresh Kumar Yadav, SHO of Lucknow’s Sarojini Nagar police station where Shahid had lodged a ‘missing person’ complaint, confirmed that Zakir had indeed returned Sunday.

Vinay Singh, in-charge of the Lucknow Airport police outpost, said that “Zakir’s statement will be recorded when he is in a better condition.”

On June 13, Zakir had returned from Dubai after spending six months there for work. The CCTV footage showed him exiting the gates of Lucknow’s Amausi airport that day, but somehow, he never made it home, until Sunday.

Last month, Shahid held a press conference in Lucknow and said that he suspected ‘foul play’ in Zakir’s disappearance.

Reacting after Zakir’s return, Rihai Manch’s president Mohammad Shoaib alleged: “The circumstances indicate that he was picked up by intelligence agencies. He keeps on yelling that they will come and pick him up again. He needs psychiatric treatment. All this indicates that he was picked up by intelligence agencies.”