'Lost' boy returns home from India
A 12-year-old boy, who went missing four months ago and mysteriously wound up in New Delhi, was returned home yesterday.
Mohammad Yamin, son of late Abdul Kader of Chittagong city's Amin Jute Mills area, used to sell toys in Dhaka's Airport Railway Station area. He left his Chittagong home around a year ago. He has four sisters.
He was handed over to his mother at a programme at the conference hall of Chittagong City Corporation. CCC Mayor AJM Nasir Uddin was present.
Two non-government organisations -- Butterflies of India and Aparajeyo-Bangladesh of Bangladesh -- made the arrangements for Yamin's return home.
Talking to The Daily Star, Yamin said he boarded a train at the railway station to go to Tongi, on the outskirts of the capital, to buy toys four months ago. But the train did not stop at Tongi and he eventually went to Khulna.
He claimed that from Khulna, he got on another train and went to Benapole in Jessore.
The boy claimed that he blended in with a number of people heading towards the other side of the border and that he was not stopped at any point.
He said he got on another train that he thought would take him back to Dhaka. The train took him to Sealdah of Kolkata.
It was there that Yamin realised he had reached India, as he heard some people speaking in Hindi and some others in Bangla.
The boy claimed that he then decided to go to New Delhi -- a place he had heard of and seen on TV.
Again, he got on a train and reached Delhi. He said he roamed around the city all day and went to Delhi railway station at night to sleep.
At the station, Yamin came across some officials of Butterflies, an India NGO. They took him to their office, said Mahbubul Alam, project coordinator of Aparajeyo-Bangladesh, Chittagong.
The boy claimed that he had Tk 38 with him, which he converted into rupees from a shop at Sealdah and got 30 rupees in exchange.
Yamin said he remembered the mobile phone number of one of his sisters.
The Butterflies officials contacted the sister about two weeks ago and asked them to take Yamin back home.
Mahbubul said as his sister informed the officials about their inability to bring Yamin home due to financial constraints, Butterflies officials contacted Aparajeyo-Bangladesh Dhaka office and sent the boy to Dhaka on January 3.
“We handed him over to his family today [yesterday] at a programme at Chittagong City Corporation office,” he added.
Yamin, however, could not say the dates and time of his trip to India.
At the programme, CCC Mayor Nasir urged Yamin's family members to take proper care of the boy. He said the city corporation would bear the expenses of his studies and cooperate with him in every possible way.
Yamin's mother, Shamsunnahar, received the boy and expressed her gratitude towards all concerned.
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