An Indian worker from the southern Indian state of Kerala, who ran a small restaurant in Hotha, has been reported missing since 2004, according to a letter issued by R. Muraleedharan, president of the Federation of Kerala Associations in Saudi Arabia (FOKASA). Shahul Hameed, 47, worked in Saudi Arabia from 1986 to 2003, doing various menial jobs in Al-Kharj, Hotha and Riyadh. He left for India on an exit visa in 2003 at which time he was running a small restaurant in Hotha. After reaching Kerala he opened a restaurant in Balussery (Kozhikkodu) on a partnership basis, but incurred heavy losses, said the letter which has been sent to the Consulate General of India, Jeddah, NRI cell, and the Ministry of Overseas Indian Affairs. On Feb. 29, 2004, Hameed disappeared from Balussery after informing his wife that he was going to Malappuram to arrange a visa to travel to Saudi Arabia. From that date nothing further has been heard from him. In 2009, some men who knew Hameed in India recognized him in Batha in Riyadh, but were unable to speak to him. They informed Hameed's elder brother Mohammed Koya and brother-in-law Abdul Kareem, who have been running restaurants in Al-Kharj for the past 17 years. The people who identified Hameed are in Kerala at present, according to his elder brother. It is suspected that Hameed has been hiding from the public deliberately for fear of reprisal from his previous creditors to whom he owes around Rs 450,000 for borrowing money to run the restaurant at Balussery. For the past seven years Hameed has never contacted anyone. His mother died two years ago. His wife and children (Mufeena,14, and Harshida,12) are living alone at their ancestral home in Kozhikkodu. His friends and FOKASA office-bearers believe that he is hiding somewhere in Riyadh. They have called for a proper inquiry. His wife filed a case at a local police station soon after his disappearance. She also wrote to the External Affairs Ministry. But she has not received a positive reply from anyone so far. Again in 2011 she registered a case at the Balussery police station.
