Hyderabad: For the last one week, Shaik Mehtab, a rickshaw puller, has been walking to the Musi River at Kishanbagh every morning. Standing on the Puranapul and then walking along the sides of the river, he stares into the water, checks its shores as far as his sight permits, and then, walks back dejected.
It was on October 18 that Mehtab’s only son, Shaik Aamir (18), slipped and fell into the surging river and got washed away. “Since then I come to the river to see if the body has come up. I walk up to Puranapul every day to check,” says the 60-year-old, who has four daughters, with whom he lives in a rented house in Kishanbagh. According to the FIR filed at the Bahadurpura police station on October 18, around 3.30 pm, Aamir, who worked as a painter, along with a few of his friends had gone to see the rising water level in the Musi when he fell into the gushing waters. The gates of Himayat Sagar, about 10 km upstream, were opened for the second time the previous night. “Aamir went along with his friends to see the water and fell in the river, it seems. While leaving home, he did not inform anyone where he was going. Else we would have stopped him,” cries Khatija Begum, Aamir’s mother.
Since then, his relatives have visited several police stations along the Musi to know if the body had washed ashore. “Our family members went to several police stations and also to the mortuary to know if the body was found,” said Malaan Bee, Aamir’s grandmother. Aamir, working as a painter, was looking after the family since Mehtab, who was a rickshaw puller, had to take a break from work due to health issues. The family lives in a two-room house near Al-Tawakkal Kirana Store in Asadbaba Nagar and pay Rs 4,500 a month as rent. For the last few days, Mehtab and the family have been struggling to come out of the shock.
“I pray to the almighty that my son comes back safely. So far there is no news about him. My husband regularly goes to the local police station to know if they have found him or his body,” says Khatija Begum.
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