28 years after separation, two Dubai women find mother in Hyderabad

THE Hyderabad Police on Thursday helped two daughters reunite with their mother, 28 years after they were separated. Nazia Sayeed, now 60, last saw her daughters Ayesha (33) and Fatima (32) before her UAE-based husband divorced her in 1988 and handed her an air ticket to Hyderabad. In January, the two Dubai-based women reached Hyderabad and met DCP (south zone) V Satyanarayana. They requested him to help them trace their mother. “They brought old photographs and sought our help. I promised to try our best. We circulated copies of the photos in the old city area. After asking hundreds of people and following many leads, we traced this woman,” Satyanarayana said. UAE-based businessman Rasheed Obaid Masmary came to Hyderabad in 1981 in search of a bride. He married Nazia and a few months later, the couple went to Fujairah. On reaching there, Nazia found Rasheed was already married to another woman. She, however, decided to live with him. Ayesha was born two years after her marriage and Fatima a year after her. In 1988, Rasheed gave her a triple talaq and sent Razia back to India. The daughters stayed with him. He later married another Hyderabadi woman and took her to UAE. The family later settled down in Dubai. Two years after her return from UAE, Nazia’s family fixed her marriage with a fruit vendor from Bidar in Karnataka. She has two sons and a daughter from the second marriage. The DCP said Additional DCP K Babu Rao met old Qazis and officials at shadi khanas with Nazia’s photos. “Her parents had passed away but one person remembered that a woman named Nazia was married to a rich UAE man by a qazi in Barkas. The qazi died years ago, but his son, who signed as witness, named two relatives of the bride as Ismail and Salim. After nearly three months, we found the duo. They led us to Nazia,” he said. When an inspector met Nazia at her home, she could not recall much about her daughters. But she remembered that her younger daughter had six fingers. Police cross-checked the information and Fatima confirmed that she had a sixth finger that she got removed surgically a few years ago. Following the confirmation, a meeting was fixed at the DCP’s office at Purani Haveli. As Nazia waited there Thursday, Ayesha, her husband, their 10-year-old son, and Fatima reached the office. What followed was an emotional reunion as the two women embraced their mother. “We didn’t let go of her for half-an-hour or so,” they said. “We never thought we would meet our mother in our lifetime,” Ayesha said. “We did not even know which part of Hyderabad she was from. But, south zone police managed to find her. It is nothing short of a miracle,’’ Fatima said.