HYDERABAD: The Indian Embassy in Saudi Arabia is trying to trace a Hyderabad woman who has been reported missing in Madina, Saudi Arabia since 2014. The Consulate General of India (CGI) Jeddah has also tried to call Shakera Begum on two numbers from which she had earlier called her family but there was no response.

"I am fearing for my daughter's life. She told me that she was facing a lot of problem in Saudi Arabia and desperately wanted that she be rescued and brought back to India," Shakera Begum's mother Zaheda Begum of Keesara told TOI. She said her daughter had also complained of being sexually harassed and physically tortured by her kafil (employer) in Madina when she called her in June 2017.

Zaheda wrote to union external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj about the plight of her daughter. She said her daughter had been sold by the agent who trafficked her to Saudi Arabia.

The agent had employed the tactic of marriage for trafficking Shakera Begum, the mother said. According to Zaheda Begum, after the death of Shakera's husband Mohd Jaffer, a relative of the family, Mohammed Akber of Warasiguda had approached them and and expressed a desire to get married to Shakera, a mother of four children.

Akber reportedly told Shakera that he would work as a house driver and she could work as a house maid with a family in Saudi Arabia. Both travelled to Dubai but without Shakera's knowledge Akber reportedly flew back to Hyderabad. Shakera was sent to Saudi Arabia.

According to Shakera's mother Zaheda Begum, Akber who returned back was living with his first wife and two children. When she confronted him, he allegedly said he knew nothing about Shakera Begum's whereabouts and that he was not responsible in any way for she going to Saudi Arabia. Zaheda Begum urged Sushma Swaraj to help bring her daughter back. She also said she was finding it extremely difficult to even provide food to Shakera's four children.

