http://arabnews.com/saudiarabia/article197718.ece
Pak woman doctor who got lost in Mina still untraceable Dr. Sara Arjumand By SIRAJ WAHAB | ARAB NEWS Published: Nov 22, 2010 00:29 Updated: Nov 22, 2010 00:29 DAMMAM: The mysterious disappearance of a Pakistani woman physician from the tent city of Mina on the last day of Haj has her colleagues and family desperately seeking answers and hoping for the best. Dr. Sara Arjumand, an unmarried 34-year-old gynecologist working at Al-Mikhwa General Hospital in Baha, had been in the Kingdom for only six months before she and several colleagues and their families left for Haj on Nov. 12. Early on Thursday, Nov. 18, the last day of Haj, she disappeared in the throng of pilgrims. Sabiha Fatima, Dr. Arjumand's mother, who was visiting her daughter but remained behind in Baha when the group started its pilgrimage, received a strange call that morning from a man who said he had the doctor's handbag, which contained her money, jewelry, identification and mobile phone. The man claimed he found the handbag near the Jamrat Complex, where the stoning of the devil ritual is carried out. Fatima told Arab News that she immediately alerted Dr. Waheed who was informally heading the group. He got in touch with the man who had called up. He said he was in Makkah but had to leave and said he was passing the handbag to another person from whom the doctor could collect it. When Dr. Waheed tried to call back, there was no answer. The handbag and its contents still have not been recovered. "We were a tightly knit group and were always together while performing the mandatory rituals of the Haj," Dr. Ejaz Ahmad, who was part of the group, told Arab News by telephone from Baha. "She was perfectly alright on the day she went missing. She had complained of slight temperature the night before, but that was probably because of the stress that we all suffered while performing the demanding rituals." Dr. Ahmad said the group had traveled to Makkah Wednesday night to perform the circumambulation of the Holy Kaaba and arrived back in Mina during the wee hours of Thursday morning. Many of the group slept in after their late night. When they awoke, Dr. Arjumand was gone. "Even if someone had noticed her leaving the camp they would have assumed that she was going out to the washroom or to buy some souvenirs," said Dr. Ahmad, who noted she had gone out to buy souvenirs on previous occasions. Group members launched a desperate bid to search for Dr. Arjumand. They scoured the nearby areas of Mina and visited almost all hospitals. Only at one hospital, Mina Al-Tawary Hospital, was there a patient listed as Sara who was checked in on Thursday evening. Hospital doctors said they did not record the second name and that she was discharged Friday morning. Police have been informed about the case by Dr. Arjumand's employers in Baha. In the complaint she has been described as 5 feet, 3 inches tall, plump, of wheatish complexion, with large black eyes, a round face and a short chin. She speaks Urdu and English with little understanding of Arabic. Fatima said it is quite possible that her daughter is under severe stress and is unable to recall her details. "There is no identification on her. All I can tell you is that she is wearing a mauve ribbon with the verses from the Holy Qur'an engraved on a metal pendant." Speaking to Arab News from Lahore, her uncle Fauzi Saleem has requested everyone to pass on any information on her that they might have. "We are extremely worried," Saleem said. "More than us here in Pakistan, it is her mother in Baha who is undergoing severe mental stress. She is all alone in Baha and is desperately waiting for her daughter to return home." Sabiha Fatima, Dr. Arjumand's mother, can be contacted on 0551740672. Her maternal uncle in Lahore, Fauzi Saleem, can be contacted on 00923334771143. Family friend Bahjat Najmi can be contacted on 0506646082. [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] ------------------------------------ Post message: [email protected] Subscribe : [email protected] Unsubscribe : [email protected] List owner : [email protected] Homepage : http://proletar.8m.com/Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/proletar/ <*> Your email settings: Individual Email | Traditional <*> To change settings online go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/proletar/join (Yahoo! ID required) <*> To change settings via email: [email protected] [email protected] <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [email protected] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
