Muzaffarpur youth recalls Sushma Swaraj’s noble gesture

MUZAFFARPUR/PATNA: A number of families in Bihar, whose relatives had safely returned from abroad following the intervention of Sushma Swaraj as the then external affairs minister felt saddened over her demise on Tuesday night.
Aftab Alam of Muzaffarpur, who reunited with his wife and daughter only after Sushma’s intervention, said he will always remain thankful to “Sushma ji” for her sincere efforts.
Aftab, who had married with Pakistan national Shahina Kaushar in Karachi in 2012, said his wife initially used to stay with him for three months on regular intervals as per the norms of visitor visa. “As the relationship between the two countries became worse, even her stay on a visitor visa was not allowed. I could not meet my wife for three years during which she gave birth to a girl child. Later, I sought the help of media to draw the attention of Sushma ji. I was surprised to get a call from her within a week in October 2016. She assured me of every help in rejoining my family. It was due to her efforts that my wife and daughter were granted permanent visas and I reunited with my family in November 2016,” Aftab told this newspaper on Wednesday.
“Today I am sad after hearing about her sudden demise. May her soul rest in peace,” he said.
Hiralal Shah and Visheshwar Prasad of Gopalganj also thank Sushma for rescuing them and hundreds of other Indians working in Saudi Arabia in 2016. “I had gone to Saudi Arabia in 2006 to work in a factory. However, the factory owner held us hostage in August 2016. We were released only after Sushma ji intervened,” Hiralal told reporters.
Visheshwar has the same story. “I went to Saudi Arabia in 2013 to work in the same factory where Hiralal worked. However, we along with hundreds of other works were held hostage in the factory in 2016. We were neither being given food nor money. It is after a letter was written to Sushma ji that we returned homes. We are extremely saddened by her demise,” he said.
Similarly, in April 2018, the bodies of five construction workers from Siwan were brought from Iraq where they had been killed by the ISIS. The deceased were identified as Santosh Kumar Singh (35), Bidya Bhushan Tiwari (36), Adalat Singh (37), Sunil Kumar Kushwaha (38) and Dharmendra Kumar (39).