6 years on, Kedarnath survivor reunited with kin

DEHRADUN

: For over six years, Mobin Ansari — a 62-yearold woman hailing from

Sitarganj

in

Uttarakhand

’s

Udham Singh Nagar district

— had been leading the life of a widow after her husband Jameel Ahmed Ansari went missing and was presumed dead in the 2013

Kedarnath

tragedy, which left many dead and several untraceable.


However, on the last day of 2019, Mobin got a video call from Chamoli and to her surprise, it was from her husband. He had been located by police during the ‘

Operation Smile

’ conducted by them to trace missing persons at a shelter home at Gopeshwar in Chamoli, where he had been living for the past few years with his memory all but gone. Police officials managed to trace his whereabouts after putting up his picture on social media. The 65-year-old was reunited with his family on New Year’s Day.

Cops questioned Kedarnath flood survivor in 2016

Piecing together Jameel’s story, sub-inspector Nitin Bisht, who is handling ‘Operation Smile’ in Chamoli district, told TOI that Jameel, 65, was working as a labourer in Lambagad in June 2013.

When disaster struck, he was carried away in the currents of the Alaknanda and had no recollection of what happened thereafter, Bisht said. Bisht said that police officials had also questioned Jameel in 2016 when they spotted him in the shelter home. “At that time, he identified himself as Zaheer Khan. In the first week of December last year, we visited the home again and this time, he said his name was Jameel.”

Jameel’s picture was circulated among social media groups and his nephew identified him. On January 1, Mobin and her elder son went to Gopeshwar, where police handed over Jameel to them.

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