Father of missing boy prays for Raya miracle

 

Fauzi Ghaffar believes his son Zahiruddin Putra, who went missing when he was eight years old, is still alive.

PETALING JAYA: While many Muslim families look forward to celebrating Aidilfitri, Fauzi Ghaffar finds it hard to share the excitement.

The fasting month serves as a painful reminder of the day his son Zahiruddin Putra went missing on April 15, 2019 – weeks before Ramadan that year.

Zahiruddin, or Zahir as his family fondly called him, is the sixth of seven children. He was eight years old when he disappeared.

Zahir was last seen at the compound of the family’s apartment in Bandar Seri Putra, Bangi, Selangor.

Recalling the day of the incident, Fauzi, 50, said Zahir liked to play alone or with his friends at the compound of the apartment, and he would not go far.

On the fateful day, Zahir had been playing with some children near the apartment’s surau. The family realised the boy was missing around 7.30pm when he did not return home.

His friends had gone home earlier but Zahir told them he wanted to continue playing near the surau and would go home shortly.

“The last time I saw him was around 6pm when I shouted at him from our unit’s window to stop playing in the rain.

“Around 7pm, his siblings still saw him (at the compound), but after Maghrib prayers, he didn’t come home so they went looking for him but he was gone,” Fauzi, who is self-employed, told FMT.

Despite a search conducted by the authorities and the public, not a clue surfaced regarding Zahir’s whereabouts. Netizens were quick to draw comparisons with the disappearance of one Ashraf Hassan in Gopeng, Perak, who went missing just a few weeks before Zahir.

To Fauzi and his family, the pain of not knowing what happened continues to haunt them and the Hari Raya celebration hasn’t been the same.

With no closure, Fauzi struggles between accepting that he may never see Zahir again and clinging on to hope that the boy will miraculously appear at their front door.

Fauzi said although there had been times when he thought he was ready to accept that Zahir, who would be 13 now, might never return home, his instinct would kick in and make him change his mind.

“My instinct tells me he’s still around. And when I miss him tremendously, I hear his voice whispering: ‘Zahir is okay, abah (dad) don’t worry’.”

For now, all Fauzi could do is to call out softly to Zahir: “Son, please come home.” - FMT