Dubai: Ghulam Abbas, the Pakistani foster father of the ‘lost’ boy Sadrick, who was reportedly ‘found’ from Al Reef Mall in Dubai, shared some old photos of the boy with his ‘family’ and claimed that one of the women carrying him may be his biological mother.
“I suspect this Filipina woman is Sadrick’s mother,” said Abbas who shared photos from Pakistan. Abbas also shared photos of himself with his wife and Sadrick while they were living together in his flat in Ajman in 2015.
In one of the photos, a woman clad in an Indonesian attire is seen carrying the boy in her arms. “She is a Filipina and not Indonesian as the photo was taken during a costume party. I suspect she is Sadrick’s mother because they have a special bond,” he claimed. (Gulf News is in possession of the unedited photo of the boy with a woman, which Ghulam Abbas claims to be his real mother. However, we have masked her face to protect her privacy as it is yet to be independently verified.)
In another photo, Abbass’s wife Marymi Quindara (Maya) is seen carrying the boy.
The story of the five-year-old boy, who was handed over to Muraqabbat Police Station in Dubai on September 6, made headlines in the UAE after police appealed to residents to identify the boy. It was initially believed that boy was lost in Al Reef Mall in Dubai, but no one came forward to claim the ‘lost’ boy. The mystery unraveled as the police found out that the boy was, in fact, not lost but handed over to the police by Abbas’s wife Maya. She was unable to raise him anymore due to financial constraints.
Abbas told Gulf News that he told his wife to abandon the boy because she was in debt. Also, he said, they did not want to get involved in any legal troubles.
The boy could not give details about his parents, but reportedly told police that his father is a ‘superman’. Police later handed over the boy to Dubai Foundation for Women and Children (DFWC) on September 9.
Police solved the mystery on September 19 when four women, including Maya who handed over the boy to police, were arrested. Maya, 51, later confessed that she was taking care of the boy for the last five years since his mother left the country.
Abbas told Gulf News that he wanted to adopt the child with his wife if the authorities concerned would allow it. He said he would fight the case of his wife who is currently being detained by Dubai police.
Abbas said he does not know the mother of the boy, but he strongly suspects that it was one of the women staying with the couple at the time and whose photo he shared. He said she was one of the several Filipinas who were tenants in their flat as his wife used to sublet rooms to girls.
Another case
The case of this is eerily similar to another incident Gulf News reported on earlier this year. A Pakistani man in Ajman approached Gulf News in April to say he had been left to look after a six-year-old Filipina girl named Fatima, whose guardians, a Filipina and another Pakistani man, had fallen upon hard times.
The guardians were not the biological parents of Fatima but had looked after her for five years after her real mother abandoned her in Dubai.
Gulf News ran an appeal to find the real mother, who was still living in Dubai, to get the girl documented so that she could attend school.
After a few days, the real mother came forward and agreed to get the child documented.
Meanwhile, after reporting the boy’s story last month, many readers called Gulf News, offering their help to the boy.
Some readers offered to welcome the boy in their homes to live with their children until they found his parents, while others wanted to help in paying his expenses and needs.
DFWC, called on readers to contact the foundation if they want to provide help or donations. People can contact the foundation on 04-6060300 or through funding@dfwac.ae
