They went out on a brand new car yet to receive registration number in the evening after promising their children to buy dinner for them. It is one week now, but the couple have not returned.
It was around 9 p.m. last Thursday, a hartal day, that businessman Hashim, 42, and his wife Habiba, 37, entrusted their two children Fida and Bilal to Hashim’s father Abdul Khader and went out of their house at Arupara, near Thazhathangadi, on the outskirts of the town to buy dinner for them.
They took the car with the temporary registration KL-05 AJ-TEMP but had failed to take their mobiles with them. Neither did they take their ATM cards.
As the couple failed to return even after midnight, Mr. Khader informed some of their relatives who commenced a search for them. As the search remained inconclusive they informed the police. “We do not have any leads so far,” said Girish P. Saradhy, Deputy Superintendent of Police, Kottayam.
The police, who initially confined their search to friends and relatives, are now checking religious centres inside and outside Kerala. They also searched the Meenachil river for two days.
CCTV footage
The only lead they have so far is a CCTV visual from a house at Manikkunnam, near Arupara, which showed a car of the same brand with a man and woman passing by. “So far we know that they were moving in the direction of Kottayam town,” Mr. Saradhy said.
On Wednesday there were rumours that the body of a man found in Thiruvananthapuram was that of Hashim’s.
“We have formed several teams and have expanded our investigation and are combing Muslim pilgrim centres in Kerala and Tamil Nadu,” said Mr. Saradhy.
