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One night in July, two Indian tourists and a local driver went missing in the Kenyan capital of Nairobi. More than two months after the incident, he said nine police officers had been arrested in connection with the incident and that India was “closely watching”. The BBC will piece together the mystery and highlight many unsolved problems.
In one of his last social media posts before disappearing, Zulfiqar Ahmad Khan shared a video of a lion roaring in Kenya’s Masai Mara Reserve, where he was vacationing.
“A magical morning in the Masai Mara. Imagine your first meeting with Simba. How’s your breakfast?” he wrote in a typically hilarious post.
The 48-year-old Indian media marketing professional last worked as Chief Operating Officer of Balaji Telefilms, a Mumbai-based television company.
Khan’s LinkedIn profile describes him as a “results-driven, people-focused business leader” with more than 19 years of experience in broadcast and digital media companies. And he’s a “high-energy, performance-oriented coach, mentor, and manager.”
His friends described him as “a keen sportsman, foodie, avid traveler and explorer” and a cricket enthusiast.
After quitting his job in June, Khan spent a month traveling in Kenya. His Facebook and his Instagram feeds were filled with photos and videos from his time in the country, including breakfasts in Nairobi, afternoons at the game his park.
Four days before he went missing, he called a friend and said he was excited to explore Kenya.
One of them was Rajiv Dubey, a Delhi-based marketing professional who has known him for 24 years. “He sounded very happy. He spoke with some of his friends a few days ago, told them more about the wildlife and advised them to visit this ‘nice’ place,” he said. Told.
Khan told friends he plans to return home on July 24, returning to Kenya to witness the “great migration” of more than one million wildebeest and herds of animals that migrate to the rolling grasslands of the Masai Mara each year. said he wanted to
On the night of July 22, Mr. Khan disappeared along with another Indian man and his Kenyan driver.
The second Indian was Mohammad Zayed Sami Kidwai, 36, who was also in Nairobi on a tourist visa. Originally from Lucknow, a city in northern India, and living in Dubai, information about Kidwai remains sketchy.
Kenyan media reports described him as an “information and communications technology expert” who has led a “private life”.
In a July letter to the Indian High Commission in Nairobi, Ambreen Kidwai said her husband had been visiting Kenya as a tourist since February.
She described Mr. Khan as a friend of her husband and said that at 22:45 on July 22, they both left the Nairobi hotel where they were staying and went to a bar.
Mrs. Kidwai said she “texted” her husband around midnight asking “when will you be back?”
She nodded immediately, and when she woke up at 03:00, she realized her husband had not returned, said Mrs Kidwai.
She called her husband’s and the driver’s phones, but they both appeared to be turned off. She confirmed with a “mutual friend” in Nairobi that the two men were not with anyone.
The next day, Mrs Kidwai went to the police and reported her missing husband and Mr Khan. Two Indians were seen leaving the store around 1am and getting into a Toyota sedan. She also determined that the abandoned car police had found was the one her husband and Mr. Khan were in.
Back in Mumbai, Mr. Khan’s friends were worried about him.
They said there had been “total silence” since July 21, no social media updates, no phone calls, adding, “What my friends were most worried about was our WhatsApp. [messages] It didn’t show up as received.”
Kenyan police appear to be making no headway, and after waiting 70 days, friends have launched a petition seeking Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s help in finding Mr Khan. More than 10,000 people have signed it so far. .
“Although Zulfi never visits a country or place, he spends weeks exploring the area and immersing himself in its history and culture,” his friend wrote in the petition.
His trip to Kenya was “a Zulfi explorer wanting to experience a new country…and then Zulfi disappeared. Without a trace. No contact with family or friends.”
what happened to the men
Local media, citing officials, said two Indians had traveled to Kenya to support the campaign of charismatic 55-year-old politician William Ruto, who was sworn in as the country’s fifth president in September. reported that he was in
The Indian is reported missing along with local driver Nicodemus Mwania shortly after being arrested by police in Nairobi.
Almost three months later, Kenyan police claimed to have moved on. Since October 21, nine police officers have been arrested in connection with the kidnapping and murder of three men.
The Kenyan Interior Ministry, which investigates complaints against police officers, said the police were part of an elite unit called the Special Services Forces, which was disbanded by President Ruto last week over years of allegedly carrying out extrajudicial killings and disappearances of suspects. was the department.
Rights groups say their own investigations have linked squads and other police units to more than 600 deaths over the past four years. Some bodies were later found in rivers in western and northern Kenya.
Suspects in the missing Indian case include the chief police inspector, the corporal, and the police driver. “They have not yet been charged and have formally denied the allegations,” Dunstan Omari, the suspect’s attorney, said.
“But my clients feel that this is a political witch hunt and malicious. They are being targeted because of politics,” Omari said.
A taxi carrying an Indian was forcibly stopped by a group of men traveling in a Subaru vehicle on a Nairobi road, according to an affidavit filed with the court by police on Monday. The Indians and their driver were then kidnapped and taken in another vehicle to the woods of Aberdare, about 150 kilometers (93 miles) from the city.
Affidavits speak to at least four suspects, including one man who plotted three other similar kidnappings in Nairobi.
A search of the woods last week yielded nothing but some “clothing and other items” to be sent for DNA testing, police told the court. was also found at the scene, but this could not be independently confirmed.
Police said the abduction of the Indian and his driver was a “multi-agency operation between the DCI and other security agencies.”
The two Indians were in Kenya for “business and commercial purposes,” police said.
story twist
However, Khan’s family and friends strongly deny that he was in Kenya for business. Mrs Kidwai also stated in her letter that her husband was there as a tourist.
“Zulfi never told me or his friends about the work he was doing there for the campaign. He always called me if he was doing something new. I’ve been here,” said Mr. Darvey.
But Denise Itumbi, a consultant who ran President Root’s digital campaign, said the two Indians “actually helped” the social media campaign.
“I met them many times in Nairobi. I knew where they were staying. I was in a Telegram group with them. but they gave us some ideas,” Itumbi told me by phone from Nairobi.
Ahmed Nasir Abdullah, a family lawyer in India, told me: [social] media. I think they were experts in how to make short videos of political rallies.I think they both did small, very peripheral things. [to the campaign].”
unanswered question
Police say they need to “conduct further investigations and gather more corroborating evidence” to link the suspect to the disappearance of the three men.
Obviously there are many unanswered questions.
Did the two Indians know each other before? Did they work for Kenya’s presidential campaign and get involved in political strife? Why were they kidnapped? Whose body did the police find?
no one really knows.
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