Hyderabad: Missing Muslim girl raised as Hindu reunites with family after 15 years

New Delhi: Over 15 years after she was reported missing, a teenage girl was reunited with her family in Hyderabad in Andhra Pradesh. But in a twist, the girl who was two-and-a-half-years old named Fatima is now called Swapna and is a staunch Sai Baba devotee.

The chance reunion happened when two policemen in Hyderabad were visiting a child welfare home in the city. They were making inquiries as part of an anti-trafficking and rescue project called "Operation Smile", as per a report by the Times of India. 

These policemen found the girl and upon further investigation found that a missing report had been filed in 2005.

A quick call to the father, Khwaja Moinuddin from Kurnool, established the genuineness of the missing complaint. Also, the identification marks were correctly identified by the mother of the missing child matche dthe girl in the child welfare centre in Hyderabad.

The family was ecstatic that they found her. They left for Hyderabad to reunite with her.

"We will take our sister to our village and keep her with us to introduce her to our friends and relatives. Later, we will send her back to the children’s home in Hyderabad so that she can continue to focus on her studies,’’ brother Abid Hussain told Times of India. 

Hussain recalled the events of the fateful day. They family was on a pilgrimage and gone to Ajmer Sharif and next to the iconic Mecca Masjid when the girl went missing. She had followed her father while he went to fetch water. 

The family camped in Hyderabad for months in search of their missing daughter. Gradually, they lost all hope and returned to Kurnool.

Though they will have to wait a little longer to be fully re-united as the child welfare committee has recommended a DNA test before she is handed over to her family.