The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh / Hyderabad News : Woman reunites with family after 17 years

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Dec 03, 2007
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Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh - Hyderabad

Woman reunites with family after 17 years

Staff Reporter

Son was five years old when she left for Kuwait

HYDERABAD: A 53-year-old woman Y. Kejiamani, who spent a harrowing 17 years in Pakistan, finally reunited with her family on Saturday.

Kejiamani’s relatives became emotional after seeing her at the Rajiv Gandhi International Airport here and burst into tears. She too remained silent with tears welling up in her eyes after her son Manikumar embraced her. Manikumar was five years old when she left for Kuwait in search of work. “I will take care of my mother now. I know the anguish I suffered since my childhood after she went abroad,” Manikumar, an MA student, said.

They later left for their native village in East Godavari district.

Kejiamani was taken to Lahore in 1990’s by one Riaz from Kuwait where both of them used to work. Riaz, a resident of Lahore, threw her out of his house after six months. He also snatched her Indian passport and burnt it.

Then she met a cook Muhammad Amin who took her to his house and provided shelter.

As differences cropped up between Amin and his wife, Amin took her to his native village in Sahiwal district in Pakistan. He later succeeded in contacting her family in India and one of her two sons working in Qatar. Her case also reached the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan which wrote a letter to the Indian High Commissioner in Islamabad on September 24.

A visa was immediately issued to her after verifying her antecedents.

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