For 26 harrowing days, the family of 75-year-old Ghulam Qadir Burki lived in a state of suspended agony. The retired gemstone businessman from Srinagar, who suffers from dementia, had vanished in the bustling streets of south Delhi, turning a routine winter visit into a desperate search mission that united police, relatives from Kashmir, and ultimately, an unlikely hero.
A Winter Visit Turns Into a Nightmare
Ghulam Qadir Burki arrived in the national capital on November 13 with his wife. The plan was to spend the winter months with their daughter, son-in-law Sajid Navi Nanda, and their two teenage grandsons at the family's home in Lajpat Nagar. However, just days into the visit, on December 2, a quick trip to a bank on Bhogal Road spiraled into a crisis. While his wife suggested they go shopping afterwards, Burki insisted on returning home alone. He never made it back.
The distraught family immediately rushed to the Jangpura police post to file a missing person report. DCP (southeast) Hemant Tiwari formed a special team with ASI Chhattarpal Singh leading the investigation. Police teams scoured nearby markets, pored over hours of CCTV footage, and questioned countless shopkeepers, vendors, and passersby. "Our officers went every day to the market and checked CCTVs, speaking to as many people as possible, but to no avail," recounted ASI Singh.
The Exhaustive Search and Fading Hope
As the days turned into weeks, hope began to dwindle. Three of Burki's relatives made the long journey from Kashmir to Delhi to aid in the search. With no solid leads, the family and police decided to blanket the areas of Bhogal and Lajpat Nagar with posters bearing Burki's photograph and contact details. "There was so much uncertainty, we didn't even know if he was alive," recalled his son-in-law, Sajid Navi Nanda. Each phone call brought a flicker of hope, often extinguished by the reality of a false lead or a cruel prank, a situation worsened by the mention of a reward on the posters.
An Unexpected Act of Kindness in Jamia Nagar
The breakthrough came on the 26th day, and from an unexpected quarter. In Okhla's Jamia Nagar, 22-year-old fruit seller Ghulam Barish noticed a disheveled and confused elderly man near his pineapple stall. The face looked familiar. Barish recalled seeing a 'missing person' poster near Bhogal Masjid. He gently approached the man, asked his name, and tried to confirm his identity.
"He looked very frail, dishevelled and confused. I fed him some fruit and asked the man whose number was on the poster to come and get him," Barish told reporters. For Nanda, the call was initially hard to believe. Only after a confirming video call, where they saw Burki with their own eyes, did the overwhelming relief sink in.
The family considers his survival a miracle. Burki was found nearly 6 kilometers from where he went missing, in Jamia Nagar, and was no longer wearing the clothes he had on December 2. He had Rs 3,500 in cash when he left, but the money was gone. "We don't know if someone took it or what happened. It was very little money and he was missing for 26 days," Nanda said. Due to his condition, Burki is unable to recall the events of those lost weeks.
The story underscores the critical role of community vigilance and simple human kindness. In a vast metropolis like Delhi, it was the alertness and compassion of a young fruit vendor that finally ended a family's 26-day ordeal, reuniting them with their loved one against all odds.
