HYDERABAD: Mystery shrouds the disappearance of a 26-year-old student of Hyderabad in New York, US.

Mirza Ahmed Ali Baig was pursuing his master’s in New Jersey and was also doing a part-time job in a mobile store in New York. Baig had gone to the US in 2015. During the intervening night of July 20-21, Baig called up his family at Santoshnagar and spoke to his mother and reportedly expressed some fear and wanted to speak to his younger brother, Mirza Shujath Baig.

“I was not at home when he called. When I returned home and called him, his phone rang a couple of times but it went unanswered. I tried reaching him again but this time it was switched off. We do not know what has happened to him,” Mirza Shujath Baig, a businessman told TOI.

Mirza Ahmed Ali Baig had done aeronautical engineering before he left for the US to pursue his interest in the same subject from Gannon University in Pennsylvania . For some reason, he shifted to New Jersey and took up admission in the American College of Commerce and Technology.

Baig’s family is at a loss to understand what could have happened to him as he had expressed some fears with his mother. “He spoke to my mother for nearly one hour 45 minutes and she tried to remain strong. He, however, did not tell her what problem he was facing. He told my mother that he would tell me all that but when I called him, there was no response on his phone,” Mirza Shujath Baig said.

In a development on Tuesday morning, a roommate of Mirza Ahmed Ali Baig in New Jersey tried to contact his mobile number again. “It rang and someone picked up the phone but there was no voice heard at the other end of the line,” Mirza Shujath Ali said about the information he had got from his brother’s friend. Shujath also contacted the New Jersey police from Hyderabad and subsequently, his brother’s friend went to the police and lodged a complaint.

Police who went to Baig’s residence reportedly did not find any of his documents in his shared apartment, including his passport.

Mirza Shujath Ali contacted the mobile store owner where his brother had been working and the information he got was that his brother had abruptly left the store. This was found in the CCTV footage. He had not even informed anyone in the store that he was leaving. He was working in a shop at 5W 183 St Bronx, 1054, New York.

“From what I can understand, my brother faced threats or he was harassed by some extortionist,” Mirza Shujath Ali said. Baig’s father Mohammed Ismail has written a letter to union external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj to help locate his son in the US. MBT leader Amjed Ullah Khan has also written to the Indian Embassy in the US to help locate Baig.

