Dubai: A desperate Pakistani father searching for his mentally challenged son who went missing on New Year’s Eve has appealed to Dubai residents to help find him.
The son, Adeel Afzal, 30, has been diagnosed as a schizophrenic and is frightened of crowds and strangers, his father said.
The family had taken him out to watch the fireworks and after a brief stop for a washroom break, Adeel disappeared and has not been found despite a search by police patrols.
Adeel was wearing black jeans and a white and black striped long-sleeve shirt. He is 1.8 meters tall, weighs 65 kilograms and the colour of his eyes and hair is black, his father said.
Afzal Haq, the father of the missing son, said he and his family members have put up “lost” posters at the hypermarket near where he went missing. This was the first time Adeel had gone out of his home since a long time. After the washroom break at Mamzar, he came out and sat on the sidewalk. When Afzal turned his car to pick him, Adeel had disappeared.
Erratic behaviour
Schizophrenics act very erratically, Dr Shaju George, specialist psychiatrist at International Modern Hospital, said. “If he is delusional, he will tend to hide,” he said.
That could be the reason why the police have not been able to find him even six days since a missing person report was filed at Muraqqabat Police Station in Deira.
The doctor said even if the patient is schizophrenic, he would ask for help from people, if he is intelligent. He said there is no fear that he could have killed himself. If Adeel is hallucinating, he could be wandering the streets as voices in his head would be telling him to go someplace, the doctor said.
Haq said his son is not aware of his surroundings. “He has no idea where he is, whether in Dubai or Pakistan,” he said. “We were in a hurry [to leave home] and forgot to place an ID card in his pocket,” he said.
