Missing Indian woman found in Pakistan returns home

An Indian woman who says she was trafficked to Pakistan more than two decades ago has finally returned home – 18 months after her grandson spotted her in a YouTube video.

Hamida Banu said she has spent the past 22 years “like a living corpse”, trapped in the neighboring country and unable to contact her family.

Ms Banu was tricked into going to Pakistan after accepting what was supposed to be a job in Dubai in 2002.

Both India and Pakistan – which share frosty bilateral relations – carried out extensive background checks on her before her Indian nationality was confirmed in October.

“I was fraudulently taken to Pakistan with the promise of Dubai. I tolerated (the separation) for 23 years,” the 75-year-old told reporters after crossing into India at a land border.

In 2002 Ms. Banu financially supported her four children after her husband’s death by working as a cook in Qatar, Dubai and Saudi Arabia.

She was approached by a recruitment agent who told her he could help arrange a job in Dubai. The agent asked her to pay 20,000 rupees ($250; £200).

But, as Ms. Banu recalled in her 2022 video interview, instead of Dubai, she was brought to the city of Hyderabad in Pakistan and held in a house for three months.

She later married a street vendor in Karachi who died during the Covid-19 pandemic. She told BBC Punjabi that her husband never bothered her.

Her story made headlines in July 2022 after Indian journalist Khalfan Sheikh happened to watch the YouTube interview conducted by Pakistani social media activist Waliullah Maruf and shared it on his platform.

It reached Ms. Banu’s family in India when her grandson, whom she had never met, saw it.

Mr. Sheikh and Mr. Maroff then arranged a conversation between Ms. Banu and her Indian family.

“How are you? Did you recognize me? Where have you been all these years?” Ms Banu’s daughter Yasmeen was seen asking in the video call.

“Don’t ask me where I was and how I was. I missed you all so much. I did not stay here voluntarily, I had no choice,” Ms. Banu replied.

After reaching India on Monday, Ms Banu recalled the 2022 video that helped her connect with her family years later.

“My video was shared two years ago. I wasn’t sure if I would make it to India,” she said. “But the Indian embassy called me a year ago and said you can come back.

Speaking to BBC Punjabi, Ms Banu said she was happy to return to her children and siblings. “I have brothers, sisters, children there (in India), but I don’t want to be a burden to anyone.”

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