Daijiworld Media Network - Beltngady (SP)

Beltangady, Feb 5: Life without income, family without food, and lack of moral and financial support can pose a grave challenge to anyone who is caught in hostile surroundings in foreign soil. A youth from Panakaje in the taluk, Abdul Rashid (33), son of Muhammed Shaffi, has been leading a listless life in far away Uganda for no fault of his.

Rashid has no way to return to his home town. His sufferings have been giving sleepless nights and unending worry to his family members. The family here has been saying that the victim's father is being pestered and pressurized by the company that had earlier employed Rashid, for money.

Rashid had been working in a company at Kampala,Uganda, since the last six years till a year ago, when robbers intercepted him when travelling by motor bike. The gang riding in two motor bikes had snatched away cash, documents and papers belonging to the company from his possession. Rashid had filed police complaint about the incident, but the company accused him of theft and saw to it that he was jailed. After being in jail for five months since July last, he secured release on bail in December with the assistance of some local people. However, he is unable to return home nor work anywhere else.

Rashid's father, Muhammed Shaffi, has retired after working for a bidi company. Shaffi has four sons and three daughters, of which Rashid, his two brothers, and a sister, have been married. Shaffi lives with a son and a daughter at Panakaje. Shaffi is unable to work but is faced with the ordeal of having to pay rent of his house and conduct marriages of two daughters. In spite of odds, he says he has put in efforts including visiting various people's representatives to bring his son back to India safely from Uganda. He says that lot of money is required to secure his son's release from Uganda. He also contacted the ministry of foreign affairs, and the Indian high commissioner at Uganda. The Ugandan government holds Rashid guilty and a case filed against Rashid is pending in court. The company claims payment of five lac rupees for the loss suffered by it. Although office bearers of Karnataka Sangha there held talks with top brass of the company, the company asked for payment of Rs 15 lac to withdraw the case, it is said. Shaffi feels that intervention by central government can alone solve the problem.

Rashid has married a Somalian girl and has three children, two female, and a male. Rashid says that he has conveyed about his problems to the Indian external affairs minster through the tweets of Karnataka Sangha and Bharatiya Sangha, but rues the fact that the Indian high commissioner at Uganda has been treating him as guilty in the case. "My passport is with the company. I do not have employment, and no money to meet rent and food. I am prepared to meet the entire money if the same company employs me and recovers through cuts in salary. I am ready to work in any other company too. I have been finding it hard to provide a meal everyday to my wife and children," he laments.