Unexpected reunion. A Bangladeshi man in his seventies, wanted by his family for almost half a century, was found by his relatives thanks to a viral video on Facebook requesting help for his medical treatment.
Habibur Rahman was a 30-year-old businessman and father of four in the northeast town of Sylhet when he disappeared in 1972 after a business trip to the port city of Chittagong, his family reported on Monday.
His relatives, most of whom now live abroad, have been looking for him for years, without success. Until the wife of one of her grandchildren living in the United States spotted him on a video posted this month on Facebook.
"She alerted us and we rushed to the hospital and discovered my grandfather alive," said Kefayat Hussain, one of the 13 grandchildren of the disappeared and who lives in Sylhet.
One million views for the video
The 20-year-old said that Habibur Rahman had confirmed the names of his wife, who died in 2000 without finding him, and other family members.
According to his caregiver Rajiya Begum, who has cared for the old man for five years, he has become a living ascetic in the Sufi shrines in the district of Moulvibazar, south of Sylhet.
He was admitted to Sylhet hospital earlier this month after breaking his arm. Unable to finance her operation, her caregiver asked another patient to take a video and post it on Facebook to try to raise funds. Shared and republished by other Internet users, the sequence has been viewed at least a million times.
"He cried like a baby"
"He didn't recognize us at first, but when he saw my father's older cousins, he knew right away that it was us. He cried like a baby, ”said Kefayat Hussain. "He asked a lot of questions about my grandmother and my uncles who live abroad," he added.
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Habibur Rahman's family said they ignore the reasons for his disappearance but are simply delighted to have discovered their loved one still alive.
Her third son, Jalal Uddin, was a year and a half old when his parent disappeared: "my heart bled for 48 long years because I barely remembered my father's face," he said.
Relatives of the old man are expected to arrive in Bangladesh from Great Britain and the United States for an unexpected long-awaited family reunion.
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