Indian Consulate in Chicago traces ‘missing’ Hyderabad woman Syeda Zaidi, offers safe return to India

HYDERABAD: The Consulate General of India in Chicago, USA traced Syeda Lulu Minhaj Zaidi of Hyderabad in Chicago and offered her travel assistance to return home.

On August 5, 2023, came the good news when the Indian Consulate announced that they found the Hyderabad lady and would bring her back to Hyderabad if she wished so.

"Happy that we could contact Syeda Zaidi and offered help, including medical assistance and travel to India. She is fit and has spoken to her mother in India. She is yet to respond to our offer of support to return to India. We stand ready to extend to her all assistance," the consulate said in a tweet.

Syeda Lulu Minhaj Zaidi a native of Moulali, Hyderabad went to US to pursue a master's degree at TRINE University in Detroit. However, she was found depressed and starving on the streets of Chicago in an incoherent condition. Fellow Indians informed her mother who was frantically trying to contact her daughter that Minhaj Zaidi had lost her belongings and was starving.

A tweet by Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) leader Khaleequr Rahman become viral in which he gave details of the predicament faced by Minhaj Zaidi’s mother Syeda Wahaj Fatima in India and her letter to External Affairs Minister Jayashankar seeking help.

Following leads, Khaleequr was able to get in touch with one person Mukarram, a social worker in Chicago who took Minhaj Zaidi to a hospital. “Mukarram told me that she is in major depression and mentally unstable condition due to the financial situation she got into as she couldn’t get a job. The first and foremost thing is to get her out of the depression, then only she will be able to travel to India. I was told that her mother wants to travel to the USA to take care of her. I have asked him to send me the details so that we can request external affairs minister,” the BRS leader said.

Within a few days Khaleequr Rehman in an update quoting Joanna Dhanabalan, Development worker, Outreach based in Chicago said that Minhaj Zaidi was seen in Wilson Avenue, Chicago but she left the hospital where she was admitted and went missing after that.

Joanna, her team and others have combed the areas including churches and soup kitchens in Sheridan, and Broadway in Chicago. The police worked on locating her for days. In addition to updating the Indian Consulate in Chicago, Joanna's team mobilised the local Indian diaspora in the search efforts. Finally, the Indian Consulate traced Minhaj Zaidi.