Loudspeaker in hand, Afghan man searches for brother

31-year-old Afghan man went missing on Dec 31 in Karol Bagh

Thirty one-year-old Jalaluddin Kamran from Afghanistan went missing from Karol Bagh market on New Year’s eve.

The family of the mentally challenged man has been wandering on the streets of Delhi for two weeks, searching for him.

His younger brother, Farhad Kamran, and mother Hakeema are trying to pull all strings to find Jalaluddin, after realising that the police efforts to search him have been next to negligible.

Farhad, who arrived in Delhi on January 7, has recently hired an autorickshaw and a loudspeaker at a rent of Rs 1,000, and has been travelling across the city.
He is trying to appeal to the public to help him find his brother. He travels around 100 km everyday and regularly visits Jama Masjid, Chandni Chowk, Hazrat Nizamuddin, Karol Bagh, Connaught Place, Malkaganj, Kashmere ISBT and Gautam Nagar, even AIIMS and Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital.

“If you get any clue about your brother, call me on my phone,” these are the words of an investigating officer involved in this case. Farhad is employed as an IT manager at a Kabul-based NGO, Meher Educational and Human Rights Organisation.

The family is going to seek the help of the National Human Rights Commission as they are disappointed over the way the police have taken up the matter.

“Whenever I visit Karol Bagh police station, I am made to sit before a computer to identify my brother from over a thousand photographs of unidentified bodies,” added Farhad.

Jalaluddin belongs to a middle-class family in Kabul. His mother, Hakeema, had brought Kamran to Delhi for medical treatment at Sir Ganga Ram Hospital in December.

On December 31, 2011, Jalaluddin went missing from Ajmal Khan market in Karol Bagh while Hakeema was shopping. Hakeema filed a missing person complaint with Karol Bagh police station. Farhad reached Delhi on January 7 in search of his brother. Farhad has been regularly visiting mosques, gurdwaras, dargahs, hospitals, railway and bus stations.

“I have arranged a list of night shelters in Delhi. Out of 64, I have already visited over 30. I have hired some boys to distribute and paste pamphlets about Jalaluddin across the city,” he said.

Moreover, after hearing their names, some people suspect them as associates of terrorist outfits.

“I have come across many who blatantly ask me if my brother is a terrorist. One evening, a group of young men tried to assault us. We had to flee from the place to save ourselves,” he added.

The family has also visitedthe Afghan embassy twice and the embassy officials have assured them help through the Indian Ministry of External Affairs.