2004 Tsunami: Son reunited with mother after 16 years

By M.A. Kaleel 

Five-year-old boy, Akram Riskhan, who was lost following the 2004 tsunami, was reunited with his mother Abusalih Kamaliya yesterday at the age 21, at Maligaikadu, Karaitivu.

Kamaliya, a hospital employee, was at work when the Boxing Day tsunami struck. Her house was destroyed and there was no hope of her only child surviving. But one of her neighbours had told her that he had seen her son in a hospital. She searched for her precious child.

“I complained to the Police and the Human Rights Commission, but in vain. The police even threatened to arrest me. A leading Sinhala daily was kind enough to publish my story. I showed the picture of the child to almost everybody I met. But there was no trace of my child. In 2016, a Sinhala friend of mine told me that my son was studying in a Sinhala school. I visited the school and inquired about my son, but they said they didn’t have a boy like that. I posed off as a Sinhala woman selling goods and a beggar and was loitering around the school in hope of meeting my child but without success. Ultimately an employment agency informed me of the whereabouts of the child. He was convinced I was his mother and we were ultimately reunited.” 

“I am ever grateful to the family who brought up my child and was ready to help him in whatever way possible. I am a divorcee and my son is the only one to look after me.”