Missing for 54 years after shipwreck, man returns home at 83

A crowd gathered in a quiet village courtyard to witness an elderly man identify himself as a long-lost son of the soil. He claimed this was his ancestral home—the very place where he had left behind his wife and child over half a century ago.

Speaking in a disorienting blend of Hindi and fractured Bengali, his account seemed at once miraculous and impossible. He named his wife and parents, though none of them have survived to see this day. Eventually, one local resident recognised him, though even then, belief was hard to come by.

It is a narrative that eclipses the bounds of folklore: Syed Ahmed, missing for 54 years, has finally come home.

Syed Ahmed hails from Lakshmidia village at Ward No. 5 of the Hatia Pourashava in Noakhali. He returned on 5 May. For decades, his family had mourned him as deceased; his parents and wife passed away having never abandoned their vigil.

When he first left for a job at sea, he was a young man with a wife and a four-month-old son at home. Today, he is 83, his frame bowed by the weight of the years. His son, Nur Hossain, is now 55—a man who had no memory of his father’s face and was, for all intents and purposes, meeting him for the first time.

Syed Ahmed was a labourer on a cargo vessel based in Chattogram. Fifty-four years ago, during a violent storm, the ship foundered and sank near the coast of Cox’s Bazar. Since then he has remained missing. His kin presumed him lost to the sea. That long-held assumption was shattered this month.

People are now travelling from across the region to Hatia to witness the man and hear the story of his improbable survival.

A half-brother, Abul Khayer, was able to confirm his identity. Syed Ahmed is currently staying at Khayer’s residence, where he spoke to the Prothom Alo correspondent via telephone on Saturday afternoon.

He recalled that the storm struck while the vessel was near the Kutubdia area of Cox’s Bazar. He has no recollection of the fate of his crewmates; he remembers only drifting in the open sea for an arduous length of time before being rescued by the Indian Navy.

After receiving medical treatment in India, he eventually settled in the Taj Mahal area of Agra, Uttar Pradesh. He remained there until his recent journey home.

Syed Ahmed claims he was granted Indian citizenship and a passport during his stay there. However, a sudden, vivid dream of his son prompted his decision to return to Bangladesh.

Though he intended to travel on his Indian passport, he claims his documents were stolen. He eventually reached the Jashore border, where he explained his plight to the Indian Border Security Force (BSF), who assisted his passage into Bangladesh.

Upon crossing into Bangladesh at Jashore, he sought assistance from the Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB). After expressing his need to reach Dhaka, the BGB facilitated his journey by securing a train ticket.

He arrived at Kamalapur Station, where fellow passengers helped him find a rickshaw to the Sayedabad bus terminal. From there, he took a bus to Sonapur, Noakhali, then a CNG auto-rickshaw to Chairman Ghat. Finally, he crossed the river to reach Nalchira Ghat.

At the ghat, he mentioned the name of his village, Lakshmidia, and hired a rickshaw. Upon arrival, he identified himself to the locals by naming his brother and son. While the family was initially hesitant, his nephew Akter Hossain—son of his brother Abu Bakar—found that the old man’s details perfectly mirrored the stories passed down by his own father.

Due to his five-decade residency in India, Syed Ahmed has largely lost his fluency in his mother tongue, communicating primarily in Hindi. He noted that a significant portion of his 54 years away was spent at Ajmer Sharif.

His half-brother, Abul Khayer, remarked, “I was only 10 or 11 when my brother went missing, and his son was just a few months old. We had long ago accepted that he was gone. To have him back after all these years is something I never thought possible. His face had faded from my mind, but hearing him speak brings back so many old memories.”

While his son, Nur Hossain, is overjoyed to finally meet his father, the reunion has not been without friction. Nur Hossain has alleged that his paternal cousins have taken Syed Ahmed to their own home and are restricting access to him. Consequently, he has filed a General Diary (GD) with the Hatia police station.

Officer-in-Charge Md. Kabir Hossain confirmed the filing of the GD, noting that while the matter is currently a private family dispute, the police will provide legal assistance should the family require it.