Six years on, Kishanbagh family still awaits closure after son swept away in Musi River

In 2020, 20-year-old Shaik Aamir was swept away in Musi River after reservoir gates were opened. His body was never found. Six years later, his parents, already struggling with health and financial issues, continue to live with the tragedy.

Hyderabad: In October 2020, the gates of Himayathsagar and Osmansagar were opened following heavy inflows in the two reservoirs. Twenty-year-old Shaik Aamir, a resident of Kishanbagh located close to River Musi was swept away after falling in the river.

“No one knows what exactly happened, my son was washed away. It’s been six years since he went missing and so far we have not found the body. We visited the police stations up to Valigonda to check if any body was found then but the answer was in negative,” recalls Shaik Mehtab, now 60 years old, father of Aamir.

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The only son to Shaik Mehtab and Khatija Begum, twenty year-old Aamir, had gone to the river along with his friends. “We had come to know from his friends that Aamir had fallen in the river and got swept away. Immediately, we rushed to the spot, on not finding him anywhere we ran to the Puranapul bridge hoping he might have swam to safety. On not finding him anywhere, we approached the police. A case was registered then and I think it is now closed,” said Fareed, a cousin of Mehtab.

Mehtab, now aged sixty years worked as a rickshaw-puller and Khatija as a housemaid. “I had an operation for a stomach problem. A year ago, I stayed at home. Sometimes I go to the weekly market and get paid Rs. 200 by a vendor for assisting him,” he said.

Tragically, the husband of one of the four daughters of Mehtaab had passed away a few months ago and she returned to her parents’ house at Kishanbagh. “My daughter has four children and now we have to take care of her,” said Khatija Begum, who stays in a rented house.