{"id":7806,"date":"2022-01-09T08:56:35","date_gmt":"2022-01-09T08:56:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/swn.af\/en\/?p=7806"},"modified":"2022-01-09T08:56:35","modified_gmt":"2022-01-09T08:56:35","slug":"infant-baby-lost-during-evacuation-finally-found","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/swn.af\/en\/2022\/01\/infant-baby-lost-during-evacuation-finally-found\/","title":{"rendered":"Infant baby lost during evacuation finally found"},"content":{"rendered":"

MONITORING (SW) – An infant boy handed in desperation to a soldier across an airport wall in the chaos of the sudden American evacuation of Afghanistan has been found and reunited with his relatives in Kabul.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

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The baby, Sohail Ahmadi, was just two months old when he went missing on August 19 as\u00a0thousands of people rushed to leave Afghanistan\u00a0as it fell to the Taliban.<\/p>\n

Following an exclusive Reuters story published in November with his pictures, the baby was located in Kabul where a 29-year-old taxi driver named Hamid Safi had found him in the airport and took him home to raise as his own.<\/p>\n

After more than seven weeks of negotiations and pleas,\u00a0and \u2014 ultimately \u2014 a brief detention by Taliban police, Mr Safi finally handed the child back to his jubilant grandfather and other relatives still in Kabul on Saturday.<\/p>\n

They said they would now seek to have him reunited with his parents and siblings who were evacuated months ago to the United States.<\/p>\n

How Sohail\u00a0got lost<\/span><\/p>\n

During the tumultuous Afghan evacuation over the summer, Mirza Ali Ahmadi \u2014 the boy’s father who had worked as a security guard at the US embassy \u2014 and his wife, Suraya, feared their son would get crushed in the crowd as they neared the airport gates en route to a flight to the United States.<\/p>\n

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Baby Sohail was found at the airport by 29-year-old taxi driver Hamid Safi and looked after for five months.(Reuters: Ali Khara<\/span><\/span>)<\/cite><\/p>\n

Mr Ahmadi told Reuters in early November that, in his desperation\u00a0that day, he handed Sohail over the airport wall to a uniformed soldier who he believed to be an American, fully expecting he would soon make it the remaining 5 metres to the entrance to reclaim him.<\/p>\n

Just at that moment,\u00a0Taliban forces pushed the crowd back\u00a0and it would be another half an hour before Mr Ahmadi, his wife and their four other children were able to get inside.<\/p>\n

By then, the baby was nowhere to be found.<\/p>\n

Mr Ahmadi said he searched desperately for his son inside the airport and was told by officials that he had likely been taken out of the country separately and could be reunited with them later.<\/p>\n

The rest of the family was evacuated \u2014 eventually ending up at a military base in Texas.<\/p>\n

For months they had no idea where their son was.<\/p>\n

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Many of Afghanistan’s growing number of destitute people are resorting to the unthinkable as their nation falls further into poverty.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

The case highlights the plight of many parents separated from their children during the hasty evacuation effort and withdrawal of US forces from the country after a 20-year war.<\/p>\n

With no US embassy in Afghanistan and international organisations overstretched, Afghan refugees have had trouble getting answers on the timing, or possibility, of complex reunifications like this one.<\/p>\n

The US Department of Defense, the State Department and the Department of Homeland Security did not respond to requests for comment on Saturday.<\/p>\n

On the same day Mr Ahmadi and his family were separated from their baby, Mr Safi had slipped through the\u00a0Kabul airport<\/a>\u00a0gates after giving a ride to his brother’s family who were also set to evacuate.<\/p>\n

He said he found Sohail alone and crying on the ground. After he said he unsuccessfully tried to locate the baby’s parents inside, he decided to take the infant home to his wife and children.<\/p>\n

Mr Safi has three daughters of his own and said his mother’s greatest wish before she died was for him to have a son.<\/p>\n

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Mr Safi told Reuters that he took him to the doctor for a check-up after he was found and quickly incorporated the child into his family.<\/p>\n

They called the baby Mohammad Abed and posted pictures of all the children together on his Facebook page.<\/p>\n

After the Reuters story about the missing child came out, some of Safi’s neighbours \u2014 who had noticed his return from the airport months earlier with a baby \u2014 recognised the photos and posted comments about his whereabouts on a translated version of the article.<\/p>\n

Mr Ahmadi asked his relatives still in Afghanistan, including his father-in-law \u2014\u00a0Mohammad Qasem Razawi, 67, who lives in the north-eastern province of Badakhshan \u2014\u00a0to seek out Mr Safi and ask him to return Sohail to the family.<\/p>\n

Mr Razawi said he travelled two days and two nights to the capital bearing gifts \u2014 including a slaughtered sheep, several pounds of walnuts and clothing \u2014 for Mr Safi and his family.<\/p>\n

But Mr Safi refused to release Sohail, insisting he also wanted to be\u00a0evacuated from Afghanistan\u00a0with his family.<\/p>\n

Mr Safi’s brother, who was evacuated to California, said Mr Safi and his family have no pending applications for US entry.<\/p>\n

The baby’s family sought help from the Red Cross, which has a stated mission to help reconnect people separated by international crises, but said they had received little information from the organisation.<\/p>\n

A spokesperson for the Red Cross said it would\u00a0not comment on individual cases.<\/p>\n

Finally, after feeling they had run out of options, Mr Razawi contacted the\u00a0local Taliban police\u00a0to report a kidnapping.<\/p>\n

Mr Safi told Reuters he denied the allegations to the police and said he was caring for the baby, not kidnapping him.<\/p>\n

Mohammad Razawi, baby Sohail’s grandfather, at Hamid Safi’s home\u00a0in Kabul.(Reuters: Ali Khara<\/span><\/span>)<\/cite><\/p>\n

The complaint was investigated and dismissed and the local police commander told Reuters he helped arrange a settlement, which included an agreement signed with thumbprints by both sides.<\/p>\n

Mr Razawi said the baby’s family, in the end, agreed to compensate Mr Safi around $1,323 (100,000 Afghani) for expenses incurred looking after him for five months.\u00a0“The grandfather of the baby complained to us and we found Hamid.\u00a0 Based on the evidence we had, we recognised the baby,” said Hamid Malang, the chief area controller of the local police station.<\/p>\n

“With both sides in agreement, the baby will be handed over to his grandfather,” he said on Saturday.<\/p>\n

In the presence of the police, and amid lots of tears, the baby was finally returned to his relatives.<\/p>\n

Mr Razawi said Mr Safi and his family were devastated to lose Sohail. “Hamid and his wife were crying, I cried too, but assured them that you both are young, Allah will give you male child. Not one, but several. I thanked both of them for saving the child from the airport,” Mr Razawi said.<\/p>\n

The baby’s parents told Reuters they were overjoyed as they were able to see with their own eyes the reunion over video chat.<\/p>\n

“There are celebrations, dance, singing,” said Mr Razawi. “It is just like a wedding indeed.”<\/p>\n

Now Mr Ahmadi and his wife and other children, who in early December were able to move off the military base and resettle in an apartment in Michigan, hope Sohail will soon be brought to the United States.<\/p>\n

“We need to get the baby back to his mother and father. This is my only responsibility,” his grandfather said. “My wish is that he should return to them.<\/p>\n

ENDS<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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