A 70-year-old man from Bangladesh, sought after by his family for almost half a century, was found thanks to a viral video on a social network asking for help with medical treatment.
Habibur Rahman was 30 years old and a businessman, father of four, in the city of Sylhet (northeast), when he disappeared in 1972, after a business trip to the port city of Chittagong, his family explained this Monday.
His immediate family, most of whom lived abroad, searched for Rahman for years, but to no avail.
Until the wife of one of his grandchildren, who lives in the United States, saw Rahman in a video posted this month on Facebook.
“She alerted us and we ran to the hospital and found out that my grandfather is alive,” Kefayat Hussain, one of the missing man’s 13 grandchildren, who currently lives in Sylhet, told the France-Presse news agency.
The 20-year-old said Habibur Rahman confirmed the names of his wife, who died in 2000, and other family members.
According to an official who has been caring for Rahman for five years, the man became an ascetic who lived in the Sufi sanctuary in the district of Moulvibazar, south of Sylhet.
Habibur Rahman was admitted to Sylhet hospital earlier this month after breaking his arm.
Unable to fund his operation, he asked another patient to record a video and post it on Facebook to try to raise funds.
The video has been shared and republished by other Internet users and has been viewed at least a million times.
“He didn’t recognize us initially, but when he saw his older cousins he knew immediately that it was us. He was crying like a baby,” Kefayat Hussain told AFP.
Habibur Rahman’s family has indicated that they do not know the reasons for his disappearance and that they are just excited to have discovered him alive.
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