Indian Munni finds a Bajrangi in Pak!

| | Lucknow
  • 0

Indian Munni finds a Bajrangi in Pak!

Saturday, 25 December 2021 | Biswajeet Banerjee | Lucknow

Indian Munni finds a Bajrangi in Pak!

Pakistan woman connects to her family in India after 40 years

Akram had almost forgotten that he had an elder sister. Around 40 years back, when he was a toddler, Munni went missing. His father tried to locate her for almost two years. After he failed, they took her for dead.

On December 20, a viral video turned the life of Akram, a resident of a non-descript Saraitareen village in Sambhal, upside down. This was about a middle-aged woman from Karachi in Pakistan looking for her relatives in Sambhal’s Saraitareen village.

“I was shocked. I could not recognise my sister initially, but the way she described  the village and our  family there was no doubt that she was my eldest sister,” Akram told this reporter from Sambhal, where he worked as a menial worker.

The script has a resemblance with the blockbuster movie Bajrangi Bhaijaan, where Pawan Kumar Chaturvedi (Salman Khan) travelled to Pakistan to reunite a six-year-old girl Munni, with her family. In the movie a local journalist, Chand Nawab, played an instrumental role in uniting Munni with her family. Here too a local journalist Md Gufran, who located Akram and showed him the video which had gone viral in WhatsApp, helped the family reunion.

“I saw the video in Moradabad media group. I belong to the same Saraitareen village and the details that lady was giving interested me. I enquired from the elderly persons from my village about that lady and Mohammed Chhiddan, whom she claimed to be her father. This took me to Akram,” Gufran said.

The Munni in Bajrangi Bhaijaan had a protagonist in form of Pawan, but  real-life Munni, faced wolves, one of them her own uncle who sold her to a person in Delhi when she was just 16-17 years of age. That person later sold her to another person in Haryana and from there she was trafficked to Pakistan.

“My khaalu (uncle) took me to Delhi and sold me to a person. I went with him, because I knew him and he said he will take me to Delhi and bring me back within a few days,” Munni told this reporter from Karachi on a WhatsApp call.

Akram claims that his khaalu had taken his sister away because he wanted to take revenge on his father as his father married a second time to a lady whom his khaalu wanted to marry.

Munni wants to forget her initial years in Pakistan. “You can understand what had happened with me there,” she said.

But savior for her came in form of Sajjad Haider. She was staying with one of his tenants when Sajjad noticed her and found something amiss. “I do not need to elaborate you can understand the plight of Munni,” Sajjad said.

She was rescued and later Sajjad married her despite pressure from the family and society.

After marriage, Munni took a new name Bushra.

“I am happy now. I have four children. But I always wanted to meet my family - my father, brothers, and sisters. I do not how, but I remember about our locality and the people staying around our house,” Munni said.

Mohammad Chhiddan lived with his wife Muniza, elder daughter Munni, younger daughter Bhuri sons Munna alias Islam, Akram, and Baher Alam in Mohalla Hijdan of Saraitarin, Sambhal.  In 1981, Munni suddenly disappeared.  The father died in 1997 and mother Muniza also passed away in 2004.  In 2010 the sister Bhuri died too leaving behind three brothers.

“Almost every day we talk on the telephone. The conversation continues for hours and ends up with tears in our eyes,” Akram said.

“I appeal to Prime Minister Narendra Modi to issue a visa for my sister so she can come to India visit us,” Akram said.

Sunday Edition

CAA PASSPORT TO FREEDOM

24 March 2024 | Kumar Chellappan | Agenda

CHENNAI EXPRESS IN GURUGRAM

24 March 2024 | Pawan Soni | Agenda

The Way of Bengal

24 March 2024 | Shobori Ganguli | Agenda

The Pizza Philosopher

24 March 2024 | Shobori Ganguli | Agenda

Astroturf | Lord Shiva calls for all-inclusiveness

24 March 2024 | Bharat Bhushan Padmadeo | Agenda

Interconnected narrative l Forest conservation l Agriculture l Food security

24 March 2024 | BKP Sinha/ Arvind K jha | Agenda